"Got in this afternoon, an hour ago," he answered. "Here, come up to my rooms! We can't stand talking here. Madame Listorelle—where's she?"
"I left her at Victoria, telephoning to Major Penteney," replied Rhona. "She, too, had no money. She wanted me to wait until Major Penteney arrived, but I wouldn't. I walked here. I—I thought you'd want to know that we'd got out—at last."
Hetherwick said nothing until they had entered his sitting-room. Then, staring silently at her, he put his hands on Rhona's shoulders, and after a long look at her, suddenly and impulsively bent and kissed her.
"By gad!" he said in a low voice. "I didn't know how anxious I was about you until I saw you just now! But—now I know!"
Then, just as suddenly, he turned away from her, and in a matter-of-fact manner lighted his stove, put on a kettle of water, and began preparations which indicated his intention of making tea. Rhona, from an easy chair into which he had unceremoniously thrust her, watched him.
"Liberty!" she said suddenly. "We're both discovering something. When you've been locked up, day and night, for a while——"
"How was it?" he asked, turning on her. "Of course, we know all about the kidnapping—but the rest, until to-day? Baseverie, of course?"
"Baseverie and another man," she answered. "A tall, clean-shaven man, whose name we never heard. But Baseverie was the chief villain. As to how it was, they met us at the sunk road at Riversreade, forced us at the point of revolvers into a car, and drove us off to London—to Westminster—and into a house there, the house you've been in. There——"
"A moment," said Hetherwick, who was finding cups and saucers. "The driver of that car? He must have been an accomplice."
"No doubt, but we never saw him again. We only saw those two and a woman who acted as gaoler and brought our meals. We were fed all right, and they gave us books and papers, and actually provided us with fancy work. But they were inexorable about madame and her jewels. They must have known all about them, because they got her own notepaper——"