is a pity you were not here yesterday," he said
with a sigh.

"Why? Tell me quickly. What has happened?"

"I have been assisting the police as spy, Excellency, as I often do, and
I have seen her."

"Seen her! Where?" I cried in quick anxiety.

"Here, in Abo. She arrived yesterday morning from Tammerfors accompanied
by an Englishman. She had changed her dress, and was all in black. They
lunched together at the Restaurant du Nord opposite the landing stage,
and an hour later left by steamer for Petersburg."

"An Englishman!" I cried. "Did you not inform the Chief of Police,
Boranski?"

"Yes, your Excellency. But he said that their passports being in order
it was better to allow the lady to proceed. To delay her might mean her
rearrest in Finland," he added.

"Then their passports were vised here on embarking?" I exclaimed. "What
was the name upon that of the Englishman?"

"I have it here written down, Excellency. I cannot pronounce your
difficult English names." And he produced a scrap of dirty paper whereon
was written in a Russian hand the name--

"Martin Woodroffe."

CHAPTER XIII

A DOUBLE GAME AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

I went to the railway station, and from the time-table gathered that if
I left Abo by rail at noon I could be in Petersburg an hour before noon
on the morrow, or about four hours before the arrival of the steamer by
which the silent girl and her companion were passengers. This I decided
upon doing, but before leaving I paid a visit to my friend, Boranski,
who, to my surprise and delight, handed me my wallet with the Czar's
letter intact, saying that it had been found upon a German thief who had
been arrested at the harbor on the previous night. The fellow had, no
doubt, stolen it from my pocket believing I carried my paper money in
the flap.

"The affair of the English lady is a most extraordinary one," remarked
the Chief of Police, toying with his pen as he sat at his big table.
"She seems to have met this Englishman up at Tammerfors, or at some
place further north, yet it is curious that her passport should be in
order even though she fled so precipitately from Kajana. There is a
mystery connected with her disappearance from the wood-cutter's hut that
I confess I cannot fathom."

"Neither can I," I said. "I know the man who is with her, and cannot
help fearing that he is her bitterest enemy--that he is acting in
concert with the Baron."

"Then why is he taking her to the capi