had sent her—that you wished to see me in secret in connexion with your invention, but that you were in hiding because you feared that some spies intended to obtain knowledge of the truth. She said that there were enemy spies on every hand, and that it would be best to go over to the hotel, and there wait till night before we went North to Grantham, whither you had gone.'
'Grantham!' I echoed. 'I've not been in Grantham for years.'
'But I believed that you were there, so plausible was the woman's story,' she replied. 'We left at night, travelling in a first-class compartment together. On the way, I suddenly suspected her. Somehow I did not like the look in those strange eyes of hers, and I accused her of deceiving me. Indeed, while dozing, I had seen her carefully take my chatelaine, put something into it, and drop it out of the window. We were in a tunnel, I believe.'
'Then it was that woman who put the cipher-message into your card-case!' I exclaimed. 'Yes, go on.'
'Yes,' she replied. 'I sprang up, and tried to pull the communication-cord as we came out of the tunnel, but she prevented me. She pushed a sponge saturated with some pungent-smelling liquid into my face, and then I knew nothing more until I found myself in a small room in a cottage somewhere remote in the country.'
'Then you were detained there—eh? '
'Yes. Forcibly. That awful woman tried, by every means in her power, to force or induce me to
