ide. I have arranged, too, that she shall be alone. She is
an innocent child, and I do not think that she has been more than a
tool in the clumsy hands of your friends. She will come with me when I
ask her, and we shall be a merry party in the Underground Express.'

My apathy vanished, and every nerve in me was alive at the words.

'You cur!' I cried. 'She loathes the sight of you. She wouldn't touch
you with the end of a barge-pole.'

He flicked the ash from his cigar. 'I think you are mistaken. I am very
persuasive, and I do not like to use compulsion with a woman. But,
willing or not, she will come with me. I have worked hard and I am
entitled to my pleasure, and I have set my heart on that little lady.'

There was something in his tone, gross, leering, assured, half
contemptuous, that made my blood boil. He had fairly got me on the raw,
and the hammer beat violently in my forehead. I could have wept with
sheer rage, and it took all my fortitude to keep my mouth shut. But I
was determined not to add to his triumph.

He looked at his watch. 'Time passes,' he said. 'I must depart to my
charming assignation. I will give your remembrances to the lady.
Forgive me for making no arrangements for your comfort till I return.
Your constitution is so sound that it will not suffer from a day's
fasting. To set your mind at rest I may tell you that escape is
impossible. This mechanism has been proved too often, and if you did
break loose from it my servants would deal with you. But I must speak a
word of caution. If you tamper with it or struggle too much it will act
in a curious way. The floor beneath you covers a shaft which runs to
the lake below. Set a certain spring at work and you may find yourself
shot down into the water far below the ice, where your body will rot
till the spring ... That, of course, is an alternative open to you, if
you do not care to wait for my return.'

He lit a fresh cigar, waved his hand, and vanished through the doorway.
As it shut behind him, the sound of his footsteps instantly died away.
The walls must have been as thick as a prison's.

* * * * *

I suppose I was what people in books call 'stunned'. The illumination
during the past few minutes had been so dazzling that my brain could
not master it. I remember very clearly that I did not think about the
ghastly failure of our scheme, or the German plans which had been
insolently unfolded to me as to one