"Well ... something like it"--McTaggart chuckled. "Anyway, I went there. But it wasn't up to much. Just a bare hall, with a crowd of men and women and the usual 'Tarantella,' which I'd grown heartily sick of! But there was one girl who danced beautifully--pretty as paint--very dark, you know. I never saw such eyes in my life..." "Oh, Peter!" Lady Leason laughed--"was this how you set about curing your broken heart?" "Perhaps." His smile was enigmatic. "We danced together several times--the room was as hot as an oven and the wine the worst I ever have tasted. So when she suggested we should go outside and hunt up a cousin of hers who kept a bar--somewhere quite near--with decent drinks, like a fool, I forgot Viviani's warnings, she fetched a wrap and we started out. "Well--it seemed a bit further than she thought. We passed through a lot of narrow streets, up some steps and into an alley and came at last to a sort of tavern, where some sailors were drinking and playing cards. "We crossed the room and went up some stairs, and I was beginning to feel doubtful when she opened a door into a dingy room, almost dark, with a flickering wick burning in a saucer of oil. 'I'll fetch the wine,' said my little friend--'and a lamp--sit down.' She disappeared--I heard the door close, then the click of a key being turned in the lock from outside. "I sprang toward it, caught the handle, and the next thing I knew the light was extinguished and a man's voice said in English: "'Hands up!'" ... He glanced at his audience. "Good Heavens!" Lady Leason gasped. The Bishop's round, short-sighted eyes were still more prominent, his mouth open. "How very unpleasant!" he observed. "It _was_." McTaggart's voice was emphatic. "I saw at once it was a trap. Nobody knew where I was, and I hadn't the faintest idea myself. I stood there with my back to the door, trying to keep my wits about me. "Then from the other side of the room came a second voice, also a man's. He said slowly, in Italian: "'If you move an inch--you're a dead man.' So there were two of them!--That settled it. I guessed that both of them were armed, and there I was, in evening dress without so much as a pocket knife! "'Take off your clothes, one by one,' said the first voice in broken English--'and lay them before you on the floor--together with your money and watch.' "Well--I did it!" McTaggart scowled--the memory still had power to rouse him. "No earthly good showing fight--it was pitch dark and they knew where I stood. "'You can keep your boots'--the speaker laughed--'and here's a paper'--he pitched it across--'it's a warm night--you won't catch cold!' "Hope returned to me at that. For I didn't expect to get out alive. Well--after a minute a match flared, and was promptly blown out. I caught a glimpse of dark figures to right and left and then I felt a hand grip my arm.