| OCR Text |
Show m cms spy The Nysfery of aSilenf Love grttowkr WILLIAM LI QUEUX (J AUTHOR of "Tfir CLOSED DOOR," fTC- XsJlN ILLUSTRATIONS C-D-RnODE5S W W W r-S SYNOPSIS. 10 Oordon Gregg, dining abonrrl with Horn-'ny, Horn-'ny, the yacht Lola's owner, accidentally ws a torn photograph of a young girl. T nat night the consul's safe Is robbed. Ttia police find that Hornby Is a fraud od the I.ola'i name a false one. In I xindon Greg Is trapped nearly to his pea 111 by a f..,rmer servant. Olinto. Vlslt-l"5 Vlslt-l"5 L'umrri,'S Gregg meets Muriel 1 -m l hrourt. Hornby appears and Muriel "Mr-oiiuees hlni as Martin Woodroffe, her father's friend. Gregg sees a copy of the 'orn photograph on the l.ola and finds hat the young girl Is Muriel's friend. vVoodrolTe disappears. Gregg discovers 'lie body of a murdered woman In Ran-ru.eh Ran-ru.eh wood. The bodv disappears and In place is found the bodv of Olinto. Muriel and Gregg search Kannoch wood ogetlier. and And the bodv of Armidu. Ollnto's wife. When the police go to the wood the body has disappeared. In London Lon-don Gregg meets Olinto. alive and well. .regg traces the voting girl of the torn photograph, and finds that she is Elma Heath, niece of Baron Oberg. who has taken her to Abo. Finland, and that she polds a secret affecting Woodroffe. On tits return to Rannoch Gregg finds the I -etthoourts Hod from Hvlton (.Thaler, who Had called there. He goes to Abo. and "tier a tilt with the police chief, ts con-lucted con-lucted to the place where Elma ts 1m-, 1m-, prisoned. CHAPTER XI. The Castle of the Terror. The big Finn rowed me down the swollen river. After nearly a mile, the stream again opened out into a broad lake where, in the distance, I saw rising sheer and high from the water, a lone square building of three stories, with a tall round tower at one corner an old medieval castle it seemed to be. From one of the small windows of the tower, as we came into view of it, a fight was shining upon the water, and my guide seeing it, grunted in satis faction. It had undoubtedly been placed there as signal. After waiting five minutes or so, he pulled straight across the lake to the high, dark tower rhat descended into the water Thu place was as grim and silent as any I had ever seen, an impregnable stronghold strong-hold of the days before siege guns were invented, the fortress of some feudal prince or count who had probably prob-ably held the surrounding country in thraldom. A small wooden ledge and tialf a dozen steps led up to a low irched door, which opened noiselessly, and the dark figure of a woman stood peering forth. My guide uttered some reassuring word in Finnish in a low half-whisper, ind then slowly pushed the boat along to the ledge, saying: "Your high nobility may disembark. There is at present no danger." 1 rose, gripped a big rusty chain to steady myself, and climbed Into the narrow doorway in the ponderous wall, where I found myself in the darkness beside the female who had apparently been expecting our arrival and watching watch-ing our signal. Without a word she led me through a short passage, and then, striking a match, lit a big old-fashioned lantern. As the light fell upon her I recognized that she was a member of some religious re-ligious order. The thin ascetic, countenance coun-tenance was that of a woman of strong character, and her funereal habit seemed much too large for her Btunted, shrunken figure. "The sister speaks French?" I hazarded haz-arded in that language, knowing that lu most convents throughout Europe French is known. "Oul, m'sieur. But. are you not afraid to venture here? No strangers are permitted here, you know. If your presence was discovered you would not leave this place alive so I warn you. By admitting you I ara betraying my trust, and that I should not have done were it not compulsory." "Compulsory! How?" "The order of the chief of pollco. Even here, wa cannot afford to offend him." So the fellow Boranskl had really kept faith with me, and at his order the closed door of the convent had been opened. "Of course not," I answered. "Rns-. "Rns-. nian officialdom ia all-powerful In Finland Fin-land nowadays. Hut where Is the lady?" "You are still prepared to risk your liberty and life ?" she naked In a hoarse voice, full of grim meaning. "I am," I Bald. "Lead me to her." You are on Russian soil now. - rn'Hieiir, not Knglish." she remarked ..in ij't uMjKt'ii r.ni;nsn. jr your ob-Je.ot ob-Je.ot -were known, you would never be uparcd to return to your own land. Ah!" she sialic d, "you do not know the toystcrles and terrors of Finland. ntn a French subject, born In Tours, ajitl brought to HelHlngfors when I was flUccn. I have been In Finland forty-live forty-live yenrs. Once we were happy here, but since the czar appointed Ilaron - Oberg to be governor general " and lie drugged her sho.ilderH without finishing her sentence. "Huron Oberg governor general of Finland!" I gasped. "Cer'alnly. I'M you not know?" she said. , dropping Into French. "It Is four years now that he ban hold uu-prcme, uu-prcme, power lo crutih mid Itimxlfy Iiohm poor Finns. Ah. in'sieiir! this ori'irilry. onr-e no proi-p'-mus, is n blot 'limn tb' faro of Kurope. Ilia method arc the worst Brit) mrmt unm Tupiilous of any r tti ployed by KtiKHla lii'Tore he -jo.-, to r., be VHH the ln'Hl hated pi; i: in Petersburg, and that, they say, is why the emperor sent him to us." "Where does this baron live?" I asked, surprised that he should occupy so high a place in Russian officialdom the representative of the czar, with powers as great as the emperor himself. him-self. "At the Government palace, in Hel-singfors." Hel-singfors." "And Elma Heath is here In this grim fortress! Why?" "Ah, m'sieur, how can I tell? By reason of family secrets, perhaps. They account for so much, you know." The fact that the baron was ruler of Finland amazed me. for I had half expected ex-pected him to be some clever adventurer. adven-turer. Yet as the events of the past flashed through my brain, I recollected that in Rannoch Wood had been found the miniature of the Russian Order of Saint Anne, a distinction which, in all probability, had been conferred upon bim. If so, the coincidence, to sav the least, was a remarkable one. I questioned ques-tioned my companion further regarding regard-ing the baron. "Ah, m'sieur," she declared, "they call him 'The Strangler of the Finns.' It was he who ordered the peasants of Kasko to be flogged until four of them died and the czar gave him the Star of White Eagle for it he who suppressed sup-pressed half the newspapers and put eighteen editors in prison for publishing publish-ing a report of a meeting of the Swedes in Helsingfors; he who encourages encour-ages corruption and bribery among the officials for the furtherance of Russian interests; he who has ordered Russian Rus-sian to be the official language, who has restricted public education, who has overtaxed and ground down the people until now the mine is laid, and Finland is ready for open revolt. The prisons are filled with the innocent: women are flogged; the poor are starving, starv-ing, and 'The Strangler,' as they call him, reports to the czar that Finland is submissive and is Russianized!" I had heard something of this abominable abom-inable state of affairs from time to time from the English press, but had never taken notice of the name of the oppressor. So the uncle of Elma Heath was "The Strangler of Finland." the man who, in four years, had reduced re-duced a prosperous country to a state of ruin and revolt! "Cannot I see her at once?" I asked, feeling that we had remained too long there. If my presence in that place was perilous the sooner I escaped from It the better. "Yes. come," she said. "But silence! Walk softly," and holding up the old horn lantern to give me light, she led me out into the low stone corridor again, conducting me through a number num-ber of intricate passages, all bare and gloomy, the stones worn hollow by the feet of ages. Into a small, square chamber, the floor of which was carpeted, car-peted, and where, suspended high above, was a lamp that shed but a faint light over the barely-furnished place. Beyond was another smaller room Into which the old nun disappeared disap-peared for a moment; then she came forth leading a strange wan little figure fig-ure In a gray gown, a figure whose face was the moat perfect and most lovely I had ever seen. Her wealth of chestnut hair fell disheveled about her shoulders, and as her hands were clasped before her she looked straight at me In surprise as she was led towards to-wards me. She walked but feebly, and her countenance coun-tenance was deathly pale. Her dress, as she came beneath the lamp. was. I saw, coarse, yet clean, and her beautiful, beauti-ful, regular features, which In her photograph had held me In such fascination, fasci-nation, were even more sweet and more matchless than I had believed them to be. I stood before her dum-founded dum-founded In admiration. In silence she bowed gracefully, and then looked at mo with astonishment, apparently wondering whnt I, a perfect per-fect stranger, required of her. "Miss Klma Heath, I presume?" I exclaimed at last. "May I Introduce myself to you? My name Is Gordon Gregg, English by birth, cosmopolitan by Instinct. I huve come hero to ask you a question a question Hint concerns con-cerns myself, l.ydia Morcton has sent me to you." ,1 noticed Hint her great brown eyes walt-hcri my lips mill not my face. Her own lips moved, but she looked at me with an Inexpressible sadness. No sound escaped her. I stood rigid before her ns one turned to stone, for In that Instant, In a fhiHh Indeed, I renll.ed the awful truth. Shi! was both deaf and dumb! .She raised her clnspod hands to mo In Bllerice, yet with tenrs welling In b'T splendid eyes. I saw that upon her wrists were a pnlr of bright steel gyves. "What Is this place?'' I demanded of the woman In the religious linlilt. when I recovered from the shock of the poor girl's terrible n fillet Inn. Where am I ?" "This Ih the Cii Mile of Kajnna the criminal lunatic asylum of Finland," huh her answer. "The primmer, as you see. has lost In it h Hpeech and hearing." ' l.'r ami luiiib!" cried, looking at the beautiful original of that destroyed photograph on board the Lola. "But she has not always been so!" "No. I think not always," replied the sister quietly. "But she can write responses to my questions?" "Alas! no," was the old woman's whispered reply. "Her mind is affected. affect-ed. She is, unfortunately, a hopeless lunatic." I looked straight into those sad, wide-open, yet unflinching brown eyes utterly confounded. Those white wrists held in steel, that pale face and blanched lips, the inertness of her movements, all told their own tragic tale. And yet that letter I had read, dictated in secret most probably because her hands were not free, was certainly not the outpourings out-pourings of a madwoman. She had spoken of death, it was true, yet was it not to be supposed that she was slowly being driven to suicide? She had kept her secret, and she wished the man Hornby the man who was to marry Muriel Leithcourt to know. The room in which we stood was evidently evi-dently an apartment set apart for her use, for beyond was the tiny bedchamber; bedcham-ber; yet the small, high-up window was closely barred, and the cold bareness bare-ness of the prison was sufficient indeed in-deed to cause anyone confined there to prefer death to captivity. Again I spoke to her slowly and kindly, but there was no response. That she was absolutely dumb wa3 only too apparent Yet surely she had not always been so! I had gone in search of her because the beauty of her portrait had magnetized me, and I had now found her to be even more lovely than her picture, yet, alas! suffering suf-fering from an affliction that rendered her life a tragedy. The realization of the terrible truth staggered me. Such a perfect face as hers I had never before set eyes upon, so beautiful, so clear-cut, so refined, so eminently the countenance of one well-born, and yet so ineffably sad, so full of blank unutterable un-utterable despair. She placed her clasped hands to her mouth and made signs by shaking her head that she could neither understand under-stand nor respond. I took my wallet from my pocket and w rote upon a piece of paper in a large hand the words: "I come from Lydla Moreton. My name is Gordon Gregg." When her eager gaze fell upon the words she became Instantly filled with PiRSi . t She Raited Her Claiped Hindi to Me in Silence. excitement, and nodded quickly. Then holding her steel-clasped wrists towards to-wards me she looked wistfully at me. as though Imploring mo to release her from tho awful bondage In that silent tomb. Though the woman who hnd led me there endeavored to prevent It. I handed hand-ed her the pencil, and placed tho paper on the table for her to writo. The nun tried lo snntch It up. but I held her arm gently and forcibly, saying say-ing In French: "No. 1 wish to see If she Is really Insane. You will at least allow mo this satisfaction." And while we were In altercation. Klma. with tho pencil In her lingers, tried to write, hut by reason of her hands being bound so closely was unable. un-able. At length, however, after sev cinl attempts, she succeeded In printing print-ing in uneven capitals the response: 1 know you. You were on the yacht. 1 thought they killed you." The thin faced old woman saw her response a reply Hint was surely rational ra-tional enough and her brows contracted con-tracted with dlHplensiirn. "Why are you here?" 1 wrote, not allowing the slater to got sight of my quest Ion. In response, she wrote painfully and laboriously : "I am condemned for n crime I did not commit. Tnke me from here, or I shall kill myself." "Ah!" exclaimed the old woman. "You see, poor girl, she believes herself her-self Innocent! They all do." "Hut why Is she here?" 1 demanded fiercely. "I do not know, m'sieur. H Is not my duty to Inquire the hliitory of their crimes When they are III nurse them ; Hint In all." "Anil who Is the coniiiianilnnt of thin fort less?" "Colonel Smirnoff. If he knew that I had admitted you, you would never leave this place alive. This is the Schusselburg of Finland the place of imprisonment for those who have conspired con-spired against the state." "The prison of political conspirators, eh?" "Alas, m'sieur, yes! The place In which some of the poor creatures are tortured in order to obtain confessions and information with as much cruelty as in the black days of the Inquisition. These walls are thick, and their cries are not heard from the oubliettes below be-low the lake." I had long ago heard of the horrors of Schusselburg. Indeed who has not heard of them who has traveled In Russia? The very mention of the modern bastile on Lake Ladoga, where no prisoner has ever been known to come forth alive, is sufficient to cause any Russian to turn pale. And I waa in the Schusselburg of Finland! I turned over the sheet of paper and wrote the question: "Did Baron Oberg send you here?" In response, she printed the words: "I believe so. I was arrested in Hel singfors. Tell Lydia where I am." "Do you know Muriel Leithcourt?" I inquired by the same means, whereupon where-upon she replied that they were at school together. "Did you see me on board the Lola?" I wrote. "Yes. But 1 could not warn you, although al-though I had overheard their Intentions. Inten-tions. They took me ashore when you had gone, to Siena. After three days I found myself deaf and dumb I was made so." "Who did it?" "A doctor, I suppose. People who said they were my friends put me under un-der chloroform." 1 turned to the woman in the religious re-ligious habit, and cried: "A shameful mutilation has been committed upon this poor defenseless girl! And I will make it my duty to discover and punish pun-ish the perpetrators of iL" "Ah, m'sieur. Do not act rashly, I pray of you," the woman said seriously, serious-ly, placing her hand upon' my arm. "Recollect you are In Finland where the Baron Oberg is all-powerful." "I do not fear the Baron Oberg," I exclaimed. "If necessary, I will appeal ap-peal to the czar himself. Mademoiselle Is kept here for the reason that she is in possession of some secret. She must be released I will take the responsi bility." "But you must not try to release her from here. It would mean death to you both. The Castle of Kajana tells no secrets of those who die within its walls, or of those cast headlong into Its waters and forgotten." Again I turned to Elma. who 6tood in anxious wonder of the subject of our conversation, and had suddenly taken the old nun's hand and kissed it affectionately, perhaps In order to show me that she trusted her. Then upon the paper I wrote: ."Is the Baron Oberg your uncle?" She shook her head in the negative, showing that the dreaded governor general of Finland had only acted a part towards her in which she had been compelled to concur. "Who is Philip Hornby?" I inquired, writing rapidly. "My friend at least, I believe so." Friend! And I had all along believed be-lieved him to be an adventurer and an enemy! "Why did you go to Leghorn?" I asked. "For a secret purpose. There was a plot to kill you, only I managed to thwart them," were the words she printed with much labor. "Then 1 owe my life to you." I wrote. "And in return I will do my utmost ut-most to rescue you from here, if you do not fear to place yourself In my hands." And to this she replied: "I shall be thankful, for 1 rnnnnl hnir tMa -r,.l place longer. I believe they must torture tor-ture the women here. They will torture tor-ture me some day. Do your best to get me out of here and I will tell you everything. But," she wrote, "I fear you can never secure my release. I am confined here on a life sentence." "Hut you are English, and if you have had no trial 1 can complain to our ambassador." "No, I am a Russian subject. I was born In Russia, and went to England when was a girl." Tlint altered tho case entirely. As a subject of the czar in her ow n country she was aniennbln to Hint disgraceful blot upon civilization that allows a person to be consigned to prison at tho will of a high official, without trial or without being afforded any opportunity of appeal. I therefore nt onco saw a tilllleulty. Yet she promised to tell me the truth If I could but secure her release! Could 1 allow this refined defenseless defense-less girl to remain an inmate of that nastiie, mo terrors or which I had heard men In Russia hint nt with bated breath? They bad willfully maimed her nnd deprived her of both hearing nnd the xiwor of speech, and now they intended Hint sho should bo driven mnd by Hint silence and loneliness lone-liness that must always end In insanity. in-sanity. "1 have decided," I said suddenly, turning to the woman who had conducted con-ducted mo there, nnd having now removed re-moved the steel bonds of the prisoner with a key she secretly carried, stood Willi folded hands In the calm altitude of the rellgletiRU. "You will not act with rashness?" she implored lu quick apprehension. "Keinember, your life Is nt stiiko. as well as my own." "Hit enemies Intended Hint 1. too, should tile!" I answered, looking straight Into those deep mysterious brown eves which held me ns beneath a siirll. "They have diawn her Into their power because she had no means of defense. The man Is awaiting me In the boat outside. I intend to take her with me." "But, m'sieur, why that 1b Impossible!" Impos-sible!" cried the old woman in a hoarse voice. "If you were discovered by the guards who patrol the lake both night and day they would shoot you both." "I will risk It," I said, and linking my arm in that of the woman whose lovely countenance had verily become the sun of my existence, I made a sign, inviting her to accompany me. The sister barred the door, urging me to reconsider my decision, but I waved her aside. I Elma recognized my Intentions In a moment, and allowed herself to be conducted con-ducted down the long intricate corridor, corri-dor, walking stealthily, and as we crept along on tiptoe I felt the girl's grip upon my arm, a grip that told me that she placed her faith in me as her deliverer. Without a sound we crept forward until within a few yards from that unlocked un-locked door where the boat awaited us below, when, of a sudden, the uncertain uncer-tain light of the lantern fell upon something that shone and a deep voice cried out of the darkness in Russian: "Halt! or I fire!" And, startled, we found ourselves looking down the muzzle of a loaded carbine. A huge sentry stood with his back to the secret exit, his dark eyes shining beneath his peaked cap, as he held his weapon to his shoulder within six feet of us. "Speak!" cried the fellow. "Who are you?" At a glance I took in the peril of the situation, and without a second's hesitation hesi-tation made a dive for the man beneath be-neath his weapon. He lowered It, but it was too late, for I gripped him around the waist, rendering his gun useless. It was the work of an Instant, In-stant, for I knew that to close with him was my only chance. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
