h.

CHAPTER XVII

October 28th.

I rose late this morning. When I went down to breakfast I found that
Carlotta had already gone for her music lesson.

I drove at once to the Temple to see my lawyers and to make arrangements
for a marriage by special license.

I returned at one o'clock. Stenson met me in the hall.

"I beg your pardon, Sir Marcus, but Mademoiselle hasn't come back yet."

I waited an uneasy hour. Such a lengthy absence from home was
unprecedented. At two o'clock I went round to Herr Stuer in the Avenue
Road--a five minutes' walk.

He entered the sitting-room into which I had been ushered, wiping his
lips.

"I am sorry to disturb you, Herr Stuer," said I, "but will you kindly
tell me when Miss Carlotta left you, this morning?"

"Miss Carlotta came not at all this morning," he replied.

"But it was her regular day?"

"At ten o'clock. She did not come. At eleven I have another pupil. She
has not before missed one lesson."

I flew back home, in an agony of hope that her laughing face would meet
me there and dispel a dread that chilled me like an icy wind.

There was no Carlotta.

There has been no Carlotta all this awful day.

There will never be a Carlotta again.

I drove to the police station.

"What do you think has happened?" asked the Inspector.

It was only too horribly obvious. Any man but myself would have kept her
under lock and key and established a guard round the house. Any man but
myself would have never let her out of his sight until he had married
her, until he had tracked Hamdi and his myrmidons back to Alexandretta.

"Abduction has happened," I cried wildly. "Between Lingfield Terrace and
Avenue Road she has been caught, thrust into a closed carriage, gagged
and carried God knows where by the wiliest old thief in Asia. He is the
Prefect of Police in Aleppo. His name is Hamdi Effendi and he is staying
at the Hotel Metropole."

The Inspector questioned me. Heaven knows how I answered. I saw the
scene. The waiting carriage. The unfrequented bit of road. My heart's
darling, her face a radiant flower in the grey morning, tripping
lightheartedly along. The sudden dash, the struggle, the swiftly closed
door. It was a matter of a few seconds. My brain grew dizzy with the
vision.

"You say that he threatened to abduct her?" asked the Inspector.

"Yes," said I, "and a friend of mine promised to kill him. Heaven grant
he keep his promise!"

"Be careful, Sir Marcu