ces, we both lapsed into
silence. I was too suspicious, and he was too wary, to appear over
friendly. Clapham, Wimbledon, Surbiton, came and went. Weybridge and
Woking flashed by at lightning speed, and even Basingstoke was reached
before we spoke again. That station behind us, Dr. Nikola took the
basket before mentioned on his knee, and opened it. When he had done so,
the same enormous black cat, whose acquaintance I had made in the East
India Dock Road, stepped proudly forth. In the daylight the brute looked
even larger and certainly fiercer than before. I felt I should have
liked nothing better than to have taken it by the tail and hurled it out
of the window. Nikola, on the other hand, seemed to entertain for it the
most extraordinary affection.

Now such was this marvellous man's power of fascination that by the time
we reached Andover Junction his conversation had roused me quite out of
myself, had made me forget my previous distrust of him, and enabled me
to tell myself that this railway journey was one of the most enjoyable I
had ever undertaken.

In Salisbury we took luncheon baskets on board, with, two bottles of
champagne, for which my companion, in spite of my vigorous protest,
would insist upon paying.

As the train rolled along the charming valley, in which lie the
miniature towns of Wilton, Dinton, and Tisbury, we pledged each other in
right good fellowship, and by the time Exeter was reached were friendly
enough to have journeyed round the world together.

Exeter behind us, I began to feel drowsy, and presently was fast asleep.

I remember no more of that ill-fated journey; nor, indeed, have I any
recollection of anything at all, until I woke up in Room No. 37 of the
_Ship and Vulture Hotel_ in Plymouth.

The sunshine was streaming in through the slats of the Venetian blinds,
and a portly gentleman, with a rosy face, and grey hair, was standing by
my bedside, holding my wrist in his hand, and calmly scrutinizing me. A
nurse in hospital dress stood beside him.

"I think he'll do now," he said to her as he rubbed his plump hands
together; "but I'll look round in the course of the afternoon."

"One moment," I said feebly, for I found I was too weak to speak above a
whisper. "Would you mind telling me where I am, and what is the matter
with me?"

"I should very much like to be able to do so," was the doctor's reply.
"My opinion is, if you want me to be candid, that you have been drugged
and well-n