“I am prepared for any test, as long as she escapes the trap which her enemies have set for her.  I succeeded in saving her from Kajana, and I intend to save her now.”

“Was it you who actually entered Kajana and snatched her from that tomb!” he exclaimed, and he took my hand enthusiastically, adding—­“I have no further need to doubt you.”  And turning to the table he wrote an address upon a slip of paper, saying, “Take Mademoiselle there.  She will find a safe place of concealment.  But go quickly, for every moment places you both in more deadly peril.  Hide yourself there also.”

I thanked him and left at once, but as I stepped out of the house and re-entered the drosky I saw close by, lurking in the shadow, the spy of “The Strangler of Finland,” who had traveled with me from Abo.

Our eyes met, and he recognized me, notwithstanding my light overcoat and new hat.

Then, with heart-sinking, the ghastly truth flashed upon me.  All had been in vain.  Elma was lost to me.

CHAPTER XIV

HER HIGHNESS IS INQUISITIVE

Instantly the danger was apparent, and instead of driving back to the hotel, I called out to the man to take me to the Moscow railway station, in order to put the spy off the scent.  I knew he would follow me, but as he was on foot, with no drosky in sight, I should be able to reach the station before he could, and there elude him.

Over the stones we rattled, leaving the lurking agent standing in the deep shadow, but on turning back I saw him dash across the road to a by-street, where, in all probability, he had a conveyance in waiting.

Then, after we had crossed the Neva, I countermanded my order to the man, saying—­

“Don’t go right up to the station.  Turn into the Liteinoi Prospect to the left, and put me down there.  Drive quickly, and I’ll pay double fare.”

He whipped his horses, and we turned into that maze of dark, ill-lit, narrow streets that lies between the Vosnesenski and the Nevski, turning and winding until we emerged at last into the main thoroughfare again, and then at last we turned into the street I had indicated—­a wide road of handsome buildings where I knew I was certain to be able to instantly get another drosky.  I flung the man his money, alighted, and two minutes later was driving on towards the Alexander Bridge, traveling in a circle back to the hotel.  Time after time I glanced behind, but saw nothing of the Baron’s spy, who had evidently gone to the station with all speed, expecting that I was leaving the capital.

I found Elma in her room, ready dressed to go out, wearing a long traveling-cloak, and in her hand was a small dressing-case.  She was pale and full of anxiety until I showed her the slip of paper which Otto Kampf had given me with the address written upon it, and then together we hurried forth.

The house to which we drove was, we discovered, a large one facing the Fontanka Canal, one of the best quarters of the town, and on descending I asked the liveried dvornick for Madame Zurloff, the name which the “Red Priest” had written.