“Perhaps not!” The Baron smiled cheerfully at the Minister. “Stranger things have happened. As a matter of fact, I came here to-day to inform your excellency that I have good hopes of recovering the _Orkney’s_ gold, and that I believe I have found the Princess Napraxine.” The Minister did not start. Instead he sat and stared at the Baron as if he would read the other’s very soul. “Humph!” he grunted. “Humph! Humph! Humph!” Then after a moment: “The proofs will have to be very strong, Baron!” “They will be indisputable.” The other mused a moment. “The girl will have to be carefully coached,” he suggested, “and she will have to be a strong character to carry the thing through. Strogoff is a hard man to deceive. And detection would be serious!” The Baron did not resent the clear imputation that the other’s words conveyed. He seemed to take distrust as a matter of course. “Your excellency is mistaken,” he replied suavely. “This is no case of imposition. I have really found the Princess.” “After twenty years?” “After twenty years! The proofs are not completed, but the evidence is already morally conclusive. If I can recover the gold, as I believe I can, I should be ready even now to submit them to the Emperor, confident that he would consider them satisfactory.” The Minister settled back in his chair with a long breath. The thing was too good, and came too pat to the moment, to be true. It seemed incredible that the Princess Napraxine, stolen at the age of three, should be found twenty years later and restored to her rightful position. Still, Demidroff was a wonderful man, and could be relied on not to undertake anything unless he had good prospects of carrying it through. If he brought forward a claimant, that claimant would be well fortified with proofs. And if she won the estates, the victory would be so overwhelming that it was worth taking some risks to win it. “Tell me as much of the story as you think best, Baron,” he ordered. The Baron obeyed. “As your excellency knows,” he began, “I have agents in terrorist circles--practically as many as they have in ours. Most things that they do reach me in the course of time, though usually too late to be of much value. Some months ago I began to realize Strogoff’s power, and it seemed to me that it might be well to find the Princess. It occurred to me to make investigations through one of my agents into the records of the Brotherhood dating back to the time of the abduction. In consequence I learned that the Princess had been stolen by Count Lladislas, a Pole, who had been committed to the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul three years before, at the behest of the Grand Duke Ivan, who admired the Countess Lladislas. After Lladislas was reported dead, the Countess married the Grand Duke morganatically.