"I will serve your Excellency in any way he may
command."
His words suggested a brilliant idea. I had this man in my power; he
feared me.
"Well," I said after some reluctance, "there is a little matter in which
you might be of some assistance. If you will, I will reconsider my
decision of complaining to Petersburg."
"And what is that, Excellency?" he gasped eagerly.
"I desire to know the whereabouts of a young English lady named Elma
Heath," I said, and I wrote down the name for him upon a piece of paper.
"Age about twenty, and was at school at Chichester, in England. She is a
niece of a certain Baron Oberg."
"Baron Oberg!" he repeated, looking at me rather strangely, I thought.
"Yes, as she is a foreigner she will be registered in your books. She is
somewhere in your province, but where I do not know. Tell me where she
is, and I will say nothing more about my passport," I added.
"Then your high Excellency wishes to see the young lady?" he said
reflectively, with the paper in his hand.
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