phone receiver on its hook and had sunk into a
chair with a groan. His face was white--whiter than the prisoner's who
sat opposite him, and he seemed to have gone old all of a sudden.

"What is it?" asked Whiteside quietly. "Who was the man?"

"Stay," said Tarling. "Stay. He has Odette! It's awful, awful!"

Whiteside, thoughtful, preoccupied; Milburgh, his face twitching with
fear, watched the scene curiously.

"I'm beaten," said Tarling--and at that moment the telephone bell rang
again.

He lifted the receiver and bent over the table, and Whiteside saw his
eyes open in wide amazement. It was Odette's voice that greeted him.

"It is I, Odette!"

"Odette! Are you safe? Thank God for that!" he almost shouted. "Thank God
for that! Where are you?"

"I am at a tobacconist's shop in----" there was a pause while she was
evidently asking somebody the name of the street, and presently she came
back with the information.

"But, this is wonderful!" said Tarling. "I'll be with you immediately.
Whiteside, get a cab, will you? How did you get away?"

"It's rather a long story," she said. "Your Chinese friend saved me. That
dreadful man stopped the cab near a tobacconist's shop to telephone. Ling
Chu appeared by magic. I think he must have been lying on top of the cab,
because I heard him come down by the side. He helped me out and stood me
in a dark doorway, taking my place. Please don't ask me any more. I am so
tired."

Half an hour later Tarling was with the girl and heard the story of the
outrage. Odette Rider had recovered something of her calm, and before the
detective had returned her to the nursing home she had told him the story
of her adventure.

"I must have fainted," she said. "When I woke up I was lying at the
bottom of the cab, which was moving at a tremendous rate. I thought of
getting back to the seat, but it occurred to me that if I pretended to be
faint I might have a chance of escape. When I heard the cab stop I tried
to rise, but I hadn't sufficient strength. But help was near. I heard the
scraping of shoes on the leather top of the car, and presently the door
opened and I saw a figure which I knew was not the cabman's. He lifted me
out, and fortunately the cab had stopped opposite a private house with a
big porch, and to this he led me.

"'Wait,' he said. 'There is a place where you may telephone a little way
along. Wait till we have gone."

"Then he went back to the cab, closed the door noiseless