e.

He then added his signature.

"Now, gentlemen, what next?" he said, looking up.

O'Neil looked at his companions, and then they spoke for a moment
together.

"We are about to start at once, my lord," he said, "and it was our
intention to have left you bound and gagged, until the morning,
when the woman of the house would have assuredly found you and
released you. But, as you have acceded to our request at once, we
will, if you give us your word of honour that you will raise no
alarm, and say no word of this business until eight o'clock
tomorrow morning, let you depart at once."

"Thank you for your courtesy, gentlemen, and for your confidence
in my honour. I am, indeed, anxious to return home at once. If I
do not do so, there will be a hue and cry for me, and by the time
I return in the morning all London will know that I am missing. I
naturally should not wish this adventure to become a matter of
common talk: in the first place, because the position in which you
have placed me can scarcely be called a pleasant one; and
secondly, because the success of your enterprise might lead others
to make similar attempts on my person, or that of my colleagues.
Even now, I fear that my servants, when sufficiently recovered,
will go to my house and give the alarm."

"I do not think that that is likely to be the case, my lord,"
O'Neil said, "as we took the precaution of gagging and binding
them, and laid them down some distance from the roadside. If, on
your return home, you find they have not arrived, you have but to
send a couple of your servants out to release them. You can give
them strict orders that no word is to be said of the affair, and
make them to understand you were attacked in error, and that the
ruffians who took part in the outrage at once released you, upon
discovering your identity."

"Very good, sir," Godolphin said, with a grim smile. "I must
really compliment you all on your fertility of resource and
invention. And now, is there anything else that I can do for you?"

"There is one small favour," Desmond said. "Your lordship has
doubtless twenty guineas in your possession. You would greatly
oblige us if you would give us them, for so many louis. These you
will have no difficulty in exchanging, whereas the exhibition of
French money, on our part, might excite suspicion."

Lord Godolphin placed his hand in his pocket, drew out a heavy
purse, and, opening it, counted out twenty guineas. O'Neil took
t