“He is lost. Westerham kidnapped him.” “Impossible!” “Impossible, you fool!” shouted the captain, irritably. “It's true—perfectly true!” He walked into the hall and sank exhausted into a chair. “As for me,” he grumbled, “I have had the narrowest escape I ever had.” “So that's all, is it?” cried Mme. Estelle, remembering her own grievance. “So that's all! “But what of me? What do you think I have gone through? What do you think I have suffered? What do you think I have found out?” Melun rose unsteadily from his chair and looked at her in alarm. “Is it Lady Kathleen?” he asked; “is she safe?” “Safe! Oh, yes, she is safe,” she cried, with a peal of uncanny laughter. “Safe for your kisses and for your caresses. Oh, you liar! you liar! I have been true to you in all respects, and you have been false to me in everything that mattered. So you will marry the pretty Lady Kathleen, will you? Oh, but you won't! Never! Never!” She rushed at Melun as though to strike him, but Melun, jaded though he was, was quick and strong. He caught her brutally, as he might a dog, by the neck, and threw her into the dining-room, the door of which stood open, and, utterly careless as to what harm he might do to her, sent the unhappy woman sprawling on to the floor. In a second he had banged the door to and turned the key in the lock. He sank down on to the bench trembling and exhausted. He heard Marie pick herself up and hurl herself in blind and impotent fury against the door. He listened, shaking like a leaf, as shriek after shriek of frenzy reached his ears. Up in the tower Kathleen heard these shrieks too, and shuddered. A horrible fear took possession of her heart that there was murder being done below. She sat on the edge of her bed with her hands pressed to her heart, listening in fascinated horror. The shrieks died away, and there was complete silence in the house for full half an hour. Then Kathleen heard a sudden shout, a crashing of glass and a scrambling, tearing noise, the hideous bay of the boarhounds in the courtyard, a scream, and a thud. Stabbing the other noise with sharp precision came the sound of shots. CHAPTER XXI THE KIDNAPPING OF THE PRIME MINISTER “Out of evil cometh good.” Had Westerham caught the eye of Kathleen as the two motor cars passed each other at the corner of Whitehall Kathleen herself would have been spared much suffering and several men would not have gone to their account. But a meeting at that moment would have so changed the whole course of events that far greater trouble would have befallen, and the whole earth might have become involved in a disaster which would have grown, without question, into Armageddon. It was, however, in happy ignorance of both the greater and the lesser evil that Westerham, in what were really most excellent spirits, drew up the car which he had borrowed from Dunton at No. 10 Downing Street.