naged to unbolt the door, and
after a desperate struggle, in which he endeavoured to wrest the
weapon from my hand, I succeeded at last in gripping him by the
throat, and after nearly strangling him flung him to the ground and
escaped into the street, just as his associates, hearing his cries of
distress, dashed downstairs to his assistance.

Without doubt it was the narrowest escape of my life that I have ever
had, and so excited was I that I dashed down the street hatless until
I emerged into Lisson Grove. Then, and only then, it occurred to me
that, having taken no note of the house, I should be unable to
recognise it and denounce it to the police. But when one is in peril
of one's life all other thoughts or instincts are submerged in the one
frantic effort of self-preservation. Still, it was annoying to think
that such scoundrels should be allowed to go scot free.

Breathless, excited, and with nerves unstrung, I opened my door with
my latch-key and returned to my room, where the reading-lamp had
burned low, for it had been alight all through the night. I mixed
myself a stiff brandy and soda, tossed it off, and then turned to look
at myself in the glass.

The picture I presented was disreputable and unkempt. My hair was
ruffled, my collar torn open from its stud, and one sleeve of my coat
had been torn out, so that the lining showed through. I had a nasty
scratch across the neck, too, inflicted by the fingernails of one of
the blackguards, and from the abrasion blood had flowed and made a
mess of my collar.

Altogether I presented a very brilliant and entertaining spectacle.
But my watch, ring and scarf-pin were in their places. If robbery had
been their motive, as no doubt it had been, then they had profited
nothing, and two of them had been winged into the bargain. The only
mode by which their identity could by chance be discovered was in the
event of those wounds being troublesome. In that case they would
consult a medical man; but as they would, in all probability, go to
some doctor in a distant quarter of London, the hope of tracing them
by such means was but a slender one.

Feeling a trifle faint I sat in my chair, resting for a quarter of an
hour or so; then, becoming more composed, I put out the study lights,
and after a refreshing wash went to bed.

The morning's reflections were somewhat disconcerting. A deliberate
and dastardly attempt had been made upon my life; but with what
motive? The young wo