I saw too plainly that even though my wallet was gone I still held the trump-card--that he feared me.
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.