After an unknown interval, a draught of cool air on her face brought her back to a dim consciousness, and she realized she was out of doors. A struggle of her arms and legs resulted in a firmer grasp of the strong arms that carried her, and she quit moving, to think. She had been kidnapped, taken from her bed, and had been carried out of doors, but she had no knowledge of who her captor was nor by what means they had left the house. Her brain was furiously wide awake, but she made no move, lest more chloroform be administered, and she lose her regained consciousness. On the shore of the black lake the man stopped, and set her on her feet. Her mouth, still filled with the soft cloth, was strained and painful, but the first attempt to raise her hand resulted in its being clutched by the strong hand of the man who swayed her destiny. So slender and light was she, that he handled her as one might a child, and in his strong grasp she was as powerless as an infant. Working quickly and deftly, he tied a strong rope round her ankles and to it attached what was only too evidently a bag of stones or bricks. Then, without a word, he flung her into the deep, dark waters of the lake, and with one backward glance, he walked away. CHAPTER XVI What Happened to Zizi "Just like a kitten!" Zizi sputtered; "just like a little, day-old kitten! Ugh! I'm as mad as a wet hen!" She was sitting on the bank of the lake, dripping wet, daubed with mud, her black eyes snapping with anger. When she had been thrown into the pool, the big, entangling cape had caught in the sedge grass that bordered the water, and clutching this, the girl had hung on till she could manage to slip her slim little feet from the rope that bound them. A stiff rope and clumsily tied, it had been possible to free herself, though she might not have been able to do it, but for her experiences as a moving picture actress. It was not the first time she had been flung into water, for her slim agility had proved useful in film thrillers, and acrobatic feats were her long suit. Able, too, to remain under water for a few moments without breathing, she had freed herself from the rope, and scrambled up the bank almost as rapidly as she had been sent to her intended doom. She had pulled the cloth from her mouth, and sat, breathing in good air, but too exhausted to rise. "If he'd only spoken, drat him!" she muttered, "and yet it _must_ have been that wretch! I _know_ it was, but how can I prove it? Oh, I wish it wasn't so dark! And I'm so _wet_!" She got up now, and tried to wring the water from the cloak that she still clutched round her. Beside that she had on her nightdress, and a thin silk kimono, both of which were wetly clinging to her slim little body. Throwing the still soaking wet cloak about her, and shivering as it sopped against her, she went toward the house.