“‘Oh, Mrs. Clephane, we have been trying for you since ten o’clock!’ said he. ‘The Ambassador wishes to see you at once. Can you be ready to come in fifteen minutes—we’ll send a carriage for you?’
“‘How did you know’—I began, then stopped. ‘Yes, I’ll be ready,’ said I; ‘but let one of the staff come with the carriage.’
“‘Oh, of course!’ he replied. ‘In fifteen minutes, madame?’
“I didn’t fancy going out at midnight, yet I had undertaken the matter and I would see it through. I had not changed from my travelling suit and it hadn’t a pocket in it; nor had I one such as Madame Durrand employed, so I was carrying the letter pinned inside my waist. Now I took it out and put it in my hand-bag, all the while thinking over the affair and liking it less the more I thought. It was pretty late at night, and there was something suspicious about the affair. I went to the desk and hurriedly wrote a note to the friends that I had just left; then I called a page, and ordered him to take it at once to the Shoreham. On the envelope I had written the instruction that it was not to be delivered until morning.
“As I finished, the telephone rang and Mr. and Mrs. Buissard, I think that was the name, were announced as coming by appointment. I went down at once. Mrs. Buissard was in evening dress, a pretty, vivacious woman, Mr. Buissard was a man of thirty, slender, with a little black moustache and black hair. Somehow I didn’t like him; and I was glad he had brought his wife—she was charming.
“They had a cab instead of a car or taxi. We got in and drove up Fourteenth to H, and out H to Sixteenth. As we swung in Sixteenth, the man leaned forward to the window on my side.
“‘Look at that!’ he exclaimed excitedly.
“As I turned to look, the woman flung her silk wrap over my head and twisted it tightly about my neck.
“I tried to cry out, but a hand closed over my mouth and only a weak gurgle responded.
“‘Listen, Mrs. Clephane!’ said the man, ‘We mean you no harm. Give us the package you have for the French Ambassador, and we will at once return you to your hotel.’