He held too many cards for me.  I could see at a glance that I was out-manoeuvred, and that there was nothing to be gained by a struggle.  I don’t think I can be accused of cowardice; my reputation is too well known for that.  But I do decidedly object to being shot by a desperate man, when there is not the least necessity for it.

“Very well,” I said, lying back in my seat, “you have played your game with your usual cleverness, and I suppose I deserve what I have got for having been such a consummate idiot as to give you the opportunity you wanted.  Now, what are you going to do, and where are you going to take me?”

“You will know everything in a few minutes,” he answered.  “In the meantime I am glad to see that you take things so sensibly.  In after days you will laugh over this little incident.”

“Whatever I may think in the future,” I replied, “just at present it is confoundedly unpleasant.”

Ten minutes later the cab came to a standstill, there was the sound of opening gates, and a moment later we drove into a stone-paved courtyard.

CHAPTER X

If you could have travelled the world at that moment, from north to south, and from east to west, I believe you would have found it difficult to discover a man who felt as foolish as I did when I entered the gloomy dwelling-place as Hayle’s prisoner.  To say that I was mortified by the advantage he had obtained over me would not express my feelings in the least.  To think that I, George Fairfax, who had the reputation of being so difficult a man to trick, should have allowed myself to fall into such a palpable trap, seemed sufficiently incredible as to be almost a matter for laughter rather than rage.  There was worse, however, behind.  Miss Kitwater had been so trustful of my capability for bringing the matter to a successful conclusion, that I dared not imagine what she would think of me now.  Whichever way I looked at it, it was obvious that Hayle must score.  On the one side, he kept me locked up while he not only made his escape from Paris, but by so doing cut off every chance of my pursuing him afterwards; on the other, he might console himself with the almost certain knowledge that I should be discredited by those who had put their trust in me.  How could it very well be otherwise?  I had committed the criminal folly of accepting hospitality from the enemy, and from that moment I should not be seen.  The natural supposition would be that I had been bought, and that I was not only taking no further interest in the case, but that I was keeping out of the way of those who did.  To add to my misery, I could easily imagine the laugh that would go up on the other side of the Channel when the trick that had been played upon me became known.  But having so much else to think of, that fact, you may be sure, did not trouble me very much.  There were two things, however, about which I was particularly anxious; one was to set myself right with Miss Kitwater, and the other was to get even, at any cost, with Hayle.  The first seemed the more difficult.