MY first thought when I was seized so suddenly in the darkness was that a fresh trap had been laid for me and that I had blundered into it; and that all the fierce wrangling between Inez and Barosa in my presence had been mere pretence, to lead up to her saying what she had about my leaving the house with Miralda.
But why all that trouble had been taken when I was already in their power and, above and beyond all, why she should have given me a loaded revolver, was utterly baffling.
I had not more than a minute or two to worry over that, however, for my captors dragged me in silence to a room close by, which, like the rest of the house, was in darkness.
“Don’t speak above a whisper,” said one of them fiercely, putting his lips close to my ear.
An electric lamp was flashed in my face and the sudden light set me blinking and winking like an owl.
“Do you know him?” asked a voice out of the darkness.
A murmur of dissent from the rest followed.
“Where are the rest of you?” was the first question asked of me.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I replied after a pause.
“Answer my question at once.”