Dine with me at club that evening_--Jack."
The twentieth! That meant nearly a month of inactivity. In that time I
could cross to Abo, make inquiries there, and ascertain, perhaps, if
Elma Heath were actually dead as Chater had declared.
Two facts struck me as remarkable: Baron Oberg was said to be Polish,
while the dark-bearded proprietor of the restaurant in Westbourne Grove
was also of the same nationality. Then I recollected that pretty little
enameled cross that Mackenzie had found in Rannoch Wood, and it suddenly
occurred to me that it might possibly be the miniature of one of the
European orders of chivalry. In the club library at midnight I found a
copy of Cappelletti's _Storia degli Ordini Cavallereschi_, the standard
work on the subject, and on searching the illustrations I at length
discovered a picture of it. It was a Russian order--the coveted Order of
Saint Anne, bestowed by the Czar only upon persons who have rendered
eminent services to the State and to the sovereign. One fact was now
certain, namely, that the owner of that tiny cross, the small replica of
the fine decoration, must be a person of high official standing.
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