"My friend! _Dieu_! Can you believe that I have forgotten the insult you offered me when we last met? My friend!--you, the chief of the Tzar's spies!" she cried angrily. "And you, Nihilist and assassin, eh?" added the other, with a sinister grin. "Well, well, _ma belle_, we will not speak of such gruesome subjects as the murder of your husband in Petersburg a year ago." "My husband?" she gasped. "Have you discovered who murdered him?" "Ah! then you do not forget the facts? Neither do I. He was found shot through the heart within a hundred yards of his house in the Vosnosenskoi Prospekt. The Third Section of Imperial Police have not been idle, and as a result of their inquiries, a warrant has been issued." "For whom?" "For the arrest of the woman who chooses to call herself Adine Orlovski, on a charge of murdering her husband." "Me?" she cried. "Such imputations are infamous!" "Pray, don't be alarmed," continued the colonel, speaking in Russian, and taking a cigarette from the case that lay open on the table. He seated himself, and calmly lit it, saying, "Sit down; I wish to talk to you." Breathless with anxiety, she sank into the nearest chair. "You see," he began, "it is impossible to escape us. Our agents are everywhere. Outside the hotel at this moment are three officers ready to arrest you--" "They shall not. I'd--I'd rather kill myself." "Very well. You have the means; do so," he said, with a brutal laugh. "Ah!" cried the unhappy woman. "You, the chief of the Tzar's bloodhounds, have tracked me here, and I know that, although I am innocent, it is useless for me to expect or plead for mercy." "Yes, madame, the warrant from the Ministry of the Interior enables me to hand you over to the English police. When you are charged before the magistrate to-morrow morning, I shall apply for your extradition. That will be your first stage upon that long, straight road which leads to Siberia. Your _dossier_ at the bureau is complete. Listen; I will relate the details of your crime--" "No, no! I do not wish to hear," she said, covering her face with her hands. "I am innocent. I admit that I quarrelled with my husband, but I had no thought of such a horrible deed." "You confess to the quarrel? Good! Now we may advance a step further," said the colonel, stretching out his legs and contemplating the end of his cigarette. "I have also discovered that you know something about the recent attempt at the Winter Palace--in fact, I have indisputable proof that you are a Nihilist." "Ah! I understand now the depth of your villainy," she said, with fierce indignation. "The charge of murder is brought against me in order that I may be extradited to Russia and tried as a Nihilist! It is another of your devilish schemes."