Mrs. Ladew shuddered.
“Here is where danger is to me,” she said. “After having chloroformed him and carried him away, they did not know what to do with him. Their whole plans were upset. But they have now determined to hold him until he is ransomed.”
“And you have been made a party to this?” asked Nick, jumping to a conclusion.
“Yes.”
Mrs. Ladew startled Nick by bursting into a passion, the depth of which Nick, who had judged her to be a weak, superficial, reckless woman, did not think her capable of.
“Oh the blackness of it! The humiliation! The degradation! Lannigan showed himself to me to-day in all his villainy, and would have pulled me with him if you had not interfered.”
“What was it he proposed?” asked Nick.
“Using the power over me he has gained, he called me to him where you saw me and forced me to consent to see Mr. Ellison to-night to act as the means of getting the money they desire.”
“See him to-night?” asked Nick. “Where could you see him?”
“Here in Philadelphia. He is to be here.”