"Are you absolutely sure he didn't touch this place in any way? You didn't let him put anything on it?"
"No, no—nothing at all."
She sank back, exhausted.
"Thank God! I began to be afraid I didn't save you after all," she breathed, and laughed a little hysterically. "Oh, Roger, I shall dream for years of that terrible time I had trying to reach you! I honestly thought I should die on the way."
"Esther," he said, forcing himself to speak calmly, "where were you during those two days and nights? What do you mean by a terrible time trying to reach me?"
Her face contracted with a spasm of pain, as though the memory were unbearable. He pressed her hand, quick to spare her, and afraid, too, that he might do her an injury.
"It doesn't in the least matter; don't tell me now."
She lay silent another moment, then answered slowly:
"No … I will tell you. It won't hurt me now. You see, I have been kept a prisoner … unconscious … in the doctor's laboratory, you know, at the top of his house … in the Route de Grasse."
"A prisoner——!"