“I’m pretty much a coward, yet I managed to hold myself together and not faint, and to say nothing. I didn’t care a straw for the letter, but I didn’t fancy being defeated at that stage of the game. I tried to think—but thinking is a bit difficult under such circumstances. Just as the wrap went over my head, my hand happened to be on my hand-bag. I quietly opened it, dropped the letter close along the seat, and closed the bag. Here was a slight chance to balk them—at all events, it was the only course occurring to me at the moment.
“‘Has she fainted?’ asked the man.
“‘I think so,’ said the woman, ‘or she is scared to death.’
“Here was a suggestion—and I took it. I remained perfectly quiet.
“‘Well,’ was his answer, ‘we’re almost there, and it’s a lucky chance. No trouble at all, Seraphina.’
“I had felt the cab round several corners; almost immediately after the last it stopped. I’m a trifle hazy as to what they did; but finally I was passed out of the cab like a corpse and carried into a house. There the wrap was removed from my head; I blinked uncertainly, and looked around in a bewildered fashion.
“‘Where am I?’ I gasped.
“The woman replied, ‘You’re in absolutely no danger, Mrs. Clephane. We want the package you have for the French Ambassador; when we have it, we will send you back to your hotel.’
“‘What is to be done with the cab?’ someone asked.
“‘Nothing,’ another replied. ‘The horse will find his way to his stand; he’s almost there.’