an unseen hand. A third man had stepped
noiselessly from the long cupboard beside the fireplace, to which my
back had been turned.

I felt the cord cutting into my throat, and tried to struggle and shout,
but a cloth was clapped upon my mouth, and my hands secured by a second
cord.

"Now," said the elder man, "tell us the truth, or, if not, you die. You
understand? Where is that packet?"

"I know nothing of any packet," I gasped with great difficulty.

"It's a lie! She gave it to you! Where did you take her to?"

I was silent. I had given my promise of secrecy, and yet I was entirely
helpless in their unscrupulous hands. Again and again they demanded the
papers, which they said she had given me to keep for her, and my denial
only brought upon me the increased torture of the cord, until I was
almost black in the face, and my veins stood out knotted and hard.

I realised, to my horror, that they intended to murder me, just as they
had assassinated Latour and his wife. I fought for life, but my
struggles only tightened the cord, and thus increased my agony.

"Tell us where you have put those papers," demanded the younger of the
villainous, black-eyed pair, while the third man held me helpless with
hands of steel. "Where is the boy?"

"I have no idea," I replied.

"Then die," laughed the man with the grey beard. "We have given you a
chance of life, and you refuse to take it. You assisted her to escape
and you will share the fate of the others."

I saw that to save myself was impossible, but with a superhuman effort I
succeeded in slipping the noose from my hands and hooking my fingers in
the cord around my throat. The fellow behind placed his knee in my back,
and drew the cord with all his might to strangle me; but I cried
hoarsely for help, and clung to the fatal cord.

In an instant the two others, joined by a fourth, fell upon me, but by
doing so the cord became loosened, and I ducked my head. For a second my
right hand was freed, and I drew from my belt the long Italian knife
which I often carry as a better weapon in a scrimmage than a revolver,
and struck upward at the fellow who had sentenced me to death. The blade
entered his stomach, and he fell forward with an agonised cry. Then
slashing indiscriminately right and left, I quickly cleared myself of
them. A revolver flashed close to me, but the bullet whizzed past, and
making a sudden dash for the door I rushed headlong down the stairs and
out into the B