“And you couldn’t manage an escape?”
“Not possible. Bass, that’s Whiting’s man,—”
“Mr. Pike?”
“No, Bass is his name. And his wife’s here, too. They’ve looked after me with decency, but they were absolutely unapproachable as to bribery.”
“I know it,” and Elsie smiled ruefully. “Oh, Kim, never mind, now, dearest, I’ve got you at last! Did they force you to write that note to me?”
“Yes, at the point of a pistol.”
She wept softly in his arms, and he held her close, forgetting all his misery in his present joy.
“How did he get me?” he said, presently. “How did Whiting pull it off?”
“Oh, he had a contrivance in the fireplace by which he could get into your room, and he carried you off, drugged, I suppose—”
“Yes; I remember the sweetish smell of chloroform and that’s the last I knew.”