old-fashioned lantern. As the light fell upon her
features I saw they were thin and hard, with deep-set eyes and a stray
wisp of silver across her wrinkled brow. Around her head was a kind of
hood of the same stuff as her dress, a black, coarse woolen, while
around her neck was a broad linen collar. In an instant I recognized
that she was a member of some religious order, some minor order perhaps,
with whose habit we, in Italy, were not acquainted.

The thin ascetic countenance was that of a woman of strong character,
and her funereal habit seemed much too large for her stunted, shrunken
figure.

"The sister speaks French?" I hazarded in that language, knowing that in
most convents throughout Europe French is known.

"Oui, m'sieur," was her answer. "And a leetle Engleesh, too--a ve-ry
leetle," she smiled.

"You know why I am here?" I said, gratified that at least one person in
that lonesome country could speak my own tongue.

"Yes, I have already been told," was her answer with a strong accent, as
we stood in that small, bare stone room, a semicircular chamber in the
tower, once perhaps a prison. "But are you not afraid to venture here?"
she asked.

"Why?"

"Well--because no strangers are permitted here, you know. If your
presence here was discovered you would not leave this place alive--so I
warn you."

"I am prepared to risk that," I said, smiling; at the same time my hand
instinctively sought my hip-pocket to ascertain that my weapon was safe.
"I wish to see Miss Elma Heath."

The old nun nodded, fumbling with her lantern. I glanced at my watch and
found that it was already two o'clock in the morning.

"Remember that if you are discovered here you exonerate me of all
blame?" she said, raising her head and peering into my face with her
keen gray eyes. "By admitting you I am betraying my trust, and that I
should not have done were it not compulsory."

"Compulsory! How?"

"The order of the Chief of Police. Even here, we cannot afford to offend
him."

So the fellow Boranski had really kept faith with me, and at his order
the closed door of the convent had been opened.

"Of course not," I answered. "Russian officialdom is all-powerful in
Finland nowadays. But where is the lady?"

"You are still prepared to risk your liberty and life?" she asked in a
hoarse voice, full of grim meaning.

"I am," I said. "Lead me to her."

"And when you see her you will make no effort to speak with her? Promise
me th