The big Finn had, I found, tied up his horses, and in the heavy old boat
he rowed me down the swollen river which ran swift and turbulent around
a sudden bend and then seemed to open out to a great width. In the
starlight I could distinguish that it stretched gray and level to a
distance, and that the opposite bank was fringed with pines.
"Where are we going?" I asked my guide in a low voice. But he only
whispered:
"Hush! Excellency! Remain patient, and you shall see the young
Englishwoman."
So I sat in the boat, while he allowed it to drift with the current, steering it with the great heavy oars. The river suddenly narrowed again, with high pines on either bank, a silent, lonesome reach, perhaps indeed one of the loneliest spots in all Europe. Once the dismal howl of a wolf sounded close to where we passed, but my guide made no remark.
After nearly a mile, the stream again opened out into a broad lake
where, in the distance, I saw rising sheer and high from the water, a
long square building of three stories, with a tall round tower at one
corner--an old medieval castle it seemed to be. From one of the small
windows of the tower, as we came into view of it, a light was shining
upon the water, and my guide seeing it, grunted in satisfaction. It had
undoubtedly been placed there as signal.
With great caution he approached the place, keeping in the deep shadow
of the bank until we came exactly opposite the flanking-tower. In the
lighted window I distinctly saw a dark figure of someone appear for a
moment, and then my guide struck a match and held it in his fingers
until it was wholly consumed.
Almost instantly the light was extinguished, and then, after waiting
five minutes or so, he pulled straight across the lake to the high, dark
tower that descended into the water. The place was as grim and silent as
any I had ever seen, an impregnable stronghold of the days before siege
guns were invented, the fortress of some feudal prince or count who had
probably held the surrounding country in thraldom.
I put my hand against the black, slimy wall to prevent the boat bumping, and then distinguished just beyond me a small wooden ledge and half-a-dozen steps which led up to a low arched door. The latter had opened noiselessly, and the dark figure of a woman stood peering forth.
My guide uttered some reassuring word in Finnish in a low half-whisper, and then slowly pushed the boat along to the ledge, saying:
"Your high nobility may disembark. There is at present no danger."
I rose, gripped a big rusty chain to steady myself, and climbed into the
narrow doorway in the ponderous wall, where I found myself in the
darkness beside the female who had apparently been expecting our arrival
and watching our signal.
Without a word she led me through a short passage, and then, striking a
match, lit a big old-fashioned lantern. As the light fell upon her
features I saw they were thin and hard, with deep-set eyes and a stray
wisp of silver across her wrinkled brow. Around her head was a kind of
hood of the same stuff as her dress, a black, coarse woolen, while
around her neck was a broad linen collar. In an instant I recognized
that she was a member of some religious order, some minor order perhaps, with whose habit we, in Italy, were not acquainted.
The thin ascetic countenance was that of a woman of strong character, and her funereal habit seemed much too large for her stunted, shrunken figure.
"The sister speaks French?" I hazarded in that language, knowing that in
most convents throughout Europe French is known.
"Oui, m'sieur," was her answer. "And a leetle Engleesh, too--a ve-ry
leetle," she smiled.
"You know why I am here?" I said, gratified that at least one person in
that lonesome country could speak my own tongue.
"Yes, I have already been told," was her answer with a strong accent, as
we stood in that small, bare stone room, a semicircular chamber in the
tower, once perhaps a prison. "But are you not afraid to venture here?" she asked.
"Why?"
"Well--because no strangers are permitted here, you know. If your
presence here was discovered you would not leave this place alive--so I
warn you."
"I am prepared to risk that," I said, smiling; at the same time my hand
instinctively sought my hip-pocket to ascertain that my weapon was safe. "I wish to see Miss Elma Heath."