I smiled. “You are not alarming me, Colonel Bremenhof. I am no revolutionary. I went to the Drakonas’ house because my friend Count Ladislas Tuleski urged me to help him in protecting from you the woman he hopes to marry—Volna Drakona; I helped her to escape when you sent to arrest her; and I went to my friend’s house to tell him what I had done.”
“The woman he is to marry?” he exclaimed with a scowl. Then with a vicious curl of the lip: “So you admit that you helped in this escape?”
“Why should I deny it? You have the proofs. Your man would identify me. You can charge me with the offence, but of course in that case the reasons for the suspect’s arrest must be gone into fully. And you see I know them thoroughly.”
He saw his dilemma. “I did not say I should charge you, only that you have now committed an act which at such a time of crisis carries serious consequences.”
It was my turn to chuckle; but I had more to gain than merely turn the tables on him.
“I have done nothing which I am not perfectly willing to make known publicly anywhere. When I learned my friend’s sentiments and hopes in regard to Miss Drakona, my own object was instantly changed. But for his persistence, I should probably have left Warsaw to-day.”
This drew a long, keen, searching look on me. “Does Miss Drakona know this?”
“Of course.”
“Are you aware of the charges against Count Tuleski? That if made good, they may involve a life sentence, or at least, Siberia?”
“Why do you tell me this?”