The mention I had made of the Minister of Finance, however, seemed to
cause him considerable hesitation. That high official had the ear of the
Emperor, and if I were a friend there might be inquiries. As I stood
before him leaning against a small buhl table, I watched all the complex
workings of his mind, and tried to read the mysterious motive which had
caused him to consign poor Elma to Kajana.
He was a proud bully, possessing neither pity nor remorse, an average
specimen of the high Russian official, a hide-bound bureaucrat, a slave
to etiquette and possessing a veneer of polish. But beneath it all I saw
that he was a coward in deadly fear of assassination--a coward who
dreaded lest some secret should be revealed. That concealed door in the
paneling with the armed guard lurking behind was sufficiently plain
evidence that he was not the fearless Governor-General that was
popularly supposed. He, "The Strangler of Finland," had crushed the
gallant nation into submission, ruining their commerce, sapping the
country by impressing its youth into the Russian army, forbidding the
use of the Finnish language, and taxing the people until the factories
had been compelled to close down while the peasantry starved.
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