Ordinary people might have hesitated before setting aside their own

engagements to suit the convenience of a stranger. The Christian Hero

never hesitates where good is to be done. Mr. Godfrey instantly turned

back, and proceeded to the house in Northumberland Street. A most

respectable though somewhat corpulent man answered the door, and, on

hearing Mr. Godfrey's name, immediately conducted him into an empty

apartment at the back, on the drawing-room floor. He noticed two unusual

things on entering the room. One of them was a faint odour of musk

and camphor. The other was an ancient Oriental manuscript, richly

illuminated with Indian figures and devices, that lay open to inspection

on a table.

He was looking at the book, the position of which caused him to stand

with his back turned towards the closed folding doors communicating with

the front room, when, without the slightest previous noise to warn him,

he felt himself suddenly seized round the neck from behind. He had

just time to notice that the arm round his neck was naked and of a

tawny-brown colour, before his eyes were bandaged, his mouth was gagged,

and he was thrown helpless on the floor by (as he judged) two men. A

third rifled his pockets, and--if, as a lady, I may venture to use such

an expression--searched him, without ceremony, through and through to

his skin.

Here I should greatly enjoy saying a few cheering words on the devout

confidence which could alone have sustained Mr. Godfrey in an emergency

so terrible as this. Perhaps, however, the position and appearance of

my admirable friend at the culminating period of the outrage (as above

described) are hardly within the proper limits of female discussion. Let

me pass over the next few moments, and return to Mr. Godfrey at the time

when the odious search of his person had been completed. The outrage had

been perpetrated throughout in dead silence. At the end of it some words

were exchanged, among the invisible wretches, in a language which he

did not understand, but in tones which were plainly expressive (to his

cultivated ear) of disappointment and rage. He was suddenly lifted from

the ground, placed in a chair, and bound there hand and foot. The next

moment he felt the air flowing in from the open door, listened, and

concluded that he was alone again in the room.

An interval elapsed, and he heard a sound below like the rustling sound

of a woman's dress. It advanced up the stairs, and stopped. A female

scream rent the atmosphere of guilt. A man's voice below exclaimed

"Hullo!" A man's feet ascended the stairs. Mr. Godfrey felt Christian

fingers unfastening his bandage, and extracting his gag. He looked in

amazement at two respectable strangers, and faintly articulated, "What

does it mean?" The two respectable strangers looked back, and said,

"Exactly the question we were going to ask YOU."




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