Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/341

 CHAPTER XXXII

JUST OFF THE STRAND

A WEEK had gone by.

The Nord Express had brought me post-haste across Europe from Petersburg to Calais, and I was again in London. I had left Elma in the care of the Princess Zurloff, whom I knew would conceal her from the horde of police-agents now in search of her.

The mystery had so increased until now it had become absolutely bewildering. The more I had tried to probe it, the more inexplicable had I found it. My brain was awhirl as I sat in the wagon-lit rushing across those wide never-ending plains that lie between the Russian capital and Berlin and the green valleys between the Rhine-lands and the sea. The maze of mystery rendered me utterly incapable of grasping one solid tangible fact, so closely inter-woven was each incident of the strange life-drama in which, through mere chance, I was now playing a leading part. I was aware of one fact only, that I loved Elma with all my soul, even though 1 knew not whom she really was — or her strange life story. Her sweet face, with those soft brown eyes, so tender and intense, stood out ever before me,