the carriage.'

"'Oh, of course!' he replied. 'In fifteen minutes, madame?'

"I didn't fancy going out at midnight, yet I had undertaken the matter
and I would see it through. I had not changed from my travelling suit
and it hadn't a pocket in it; nor had I one such as Madame Durrand
employed, so I was carrying the letter pinned inside my waist. Now I
took it out and put it in my hand-bag, all the while thinking over the
affair and liking it less the more I thought. It was pretty late at
night, and there was something suspicious about the affair. I went to
the desk and hurriedly wrote a note to the friends that I had just left;
then I called a page, and ordered him to take it at once to the
Shoreham. On the envelope I had written the instruction that it was not
to be delivered until morning.

"As I finished, the telephone rang and Mr. and Mrs. Buissard, I think
that was the name, were announced as coming by appointment. I went down
at once. Mrs. Buissard was in evening dress, a pretty, vivacious woman,
Mr. Buissard was a man of thirty, slender, with a little black
moustache and black hair. Somehow I didn't like him; and I was glad he
had brought his wife--she was charming.

"They had a cab instead of a car or taxi. We got in and drove up
Fourteenth to H, and out H to Sixteenth. As we swung in Sixteenth, the
man leaned forward to the window on my side.

"'Look at that!' he exclaimed excitedly.

"As I turned to look, the woman flung her silk wrap over my head and
twisted it tightly about my neck.

"I tried to cry out, but a hand closed over my mouth and only a weak
gurgle responded.

"'Listen, Mrs. Clephane!' said the man, 'We mean you no harm. Give us
the package you have for the French Ambassador, and we will at once
return you to your hotel.'

"I'm pretty much a coward, yet I managed to hold myself together and not
faint, and to say nothing. I didn't care a straw for the letter, but I
didn't fancy being defeated at that stage of the game. I tried to
think--but thinking is a bit difficult under such circumstances. Just as
the wrap went over my head, my hand happened to be on my hand-bag. I
quietly opened it, dropped the letter close along the seat, and closed
the bag. Here was a slight chance to balk them--at all events, it was
the only course occurring to me at the moment.

"'Has she fainted?' asked the man.

"'I think so,' said the woman, 'or she is scared to death.'

"Here was a suggestion--and I took