two sheets--and laid it between two of the
advertisement pages of a magazine. I stuck the two pages together
round the edge with some gum off an envelope. I carried the magazine
carelessly stuffed into the pocket of my ulster.

"At Holyhead I tried to get into a carriage with people that looked all
right, but in a queer way there seemed always to be a crowd round me
shoving and pushing me just the way I didn't want to go. There was
something uncanny and frightening about it. In the end I found myself in
a carriage with Mrs. Vandemeyer after all. I went out into the corridor,
but all the other carriages were full, so I had to go back and sit down.
I consoled myself with the thought that there were other people in the
carriage--there was quite a nice-looking man and his wife sitting just
opposite. So I felt almost happy about it until just outside London. I
had leaned back and closed my eyes. I guess they thought I was asleep,
but my eyes weren't quite shut, and suddenly I saw the nice-looking man
get something out of his bag and hand it to Mrs. Vandemeyer, and as he
did so he WINKED....

"I can't tell you how that wink sort of froze me through and through. My
only thought was to get out in the corridor as quick as ever I could. I
got up, trying to look natural and easy. Perhaps they saw something--I
don't know--but suddenly Mrs. Vandemeyer said 'Now,' and flung something
over my nose and mouth as I tried to scream. At the same moment I felt a
terrific blow on the back of my head...."

She shuddered. Sir James murmured something sympathetically. In a minute
she resumed:

"I don't know how long it was before I came back to consciousness. I
felt very ill and sick. I was lying on a dirty bed. There was a
screen round it, but I could hear two people talking in the room. Mrs.
Vandemeyer was one of them. I tried to listen, but at first I couldn't
take much in. When at last I did begin to grasp what was going on--I was
just terrified! I wonder I didn't scream right out there and then.

"They hadn't found the papers. They'd got the oilskin packet with the
blanks, and they were just mad! They didn't know whether I'd changed the
papers, or whether Danvers had been carrying a dummy message, while
the real one was sent another way. They spoke of"--she closed her
eyes--"torturing me to find out!

"I'd never known what fear--really sickening fear--was before! Once
they came to look at me. I shut my eyes and pretended to be still