"Because you fear lest she shall write
down your secret."
"You are insulting! You evidently do not know what you are saying," he
exclaimed resentfully.
"I know what I am saying quite well. You have requested her removal to
Saghalien in order that the truth shall be never known. But Baron
Oberg," I added with mock politeness, "you may do as you will, you may
send Elma Heath to her grave, you may hold me prisoner if you dare, but
there are still witnesses of your crime that will rise against you."
In an instant he went ghastly pale, and I knew that my blind shot had
struck its mark. The man before me was guilty of some crime, but what it
was only Elma herself could tell. That he had had her arrested for an
attempted political assassination only showed how ingeniously and
craftily the heartless ruler of that ruined country had laid his plans.
He feared Elma, and therefore had conspired to have her sent out to that
dismal penal island in the far-off Pacific.
"You do not fear arrest, m'sieur?" he asked, as though with some
surprise.
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