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."