"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.
"Not in the least--at least, not arrest by you.