sometimes…. I’ll hurry over that part. Mr. Danvers had told me to watch out.
He might have been shadowed from New York, but he didn’t think so. At first I
had no suspicions, but on the boat to Holyhead I began to get uneasy. There was
one woman who had been very keen to look after me, and chum up with me
generally–a Mrs. Vandemeyer. At first I’d been only grateful to her for being
so kind to me; but all the time I felt there was something about her I didn’t
like, and on the Irish boat I saw her talking to some queer-looking men, and
from the way they looked I saw that they were talking about me. I remembered
that she’d been quite near me on the Lusitania when Mr. Danvers gave me the
packet, and before that she’d tried to talk to him once or twice. I began to
get scared, but I didn’t quite see what to do.
“I had a wild idea of stopping at Holyhead, and not going on to London that
day, but I soon saw that that would be plumb foolishness. The only thing was to
act as though I’d noticed nothing, and hope for the best. I couldn’t see how
they could get me if I was on my guard. One thing I’d done already as a
precaution–ripped open the oilskin packet and substituted blank paper, and then
sewn it up again. So, if anyone did manage to rob me of it, it wouldn’t matter.
“What to do with the real thing worried me no end. Finally I opened it out
flat–there were only two sheets–and laid it between two of the advertisement
pages of a magazine. I stuck the two pages together round the edge with some gum
off an envelope. I carried the magazine carelessly stuffed into the pocket of
my ulster.
“At Holyhead I tried to get into a carriage with people that looked all
right, but in a queer way there seemed always to be a crowd round me shoving and
pushing me just the way I didn’t want to go. There was something uncanny and
frightening about it. In the end I found myself in a carriage with Mrs.
Vandemeyer after all. I went out into the corridor, but all the other carriages
were full, so I had to go back and sit down. I consoled myself with the thought
that there were other people in the carriage–there was quite a nice-looking man
and his wife sitting just opposite. So I felt almost happy about it until just
outside London. I had leaned back and closed my eyes. I guess they thought I
was asleep, but my eyes weren’t quite shut, and suddenly I saw the nice-looking
man get something out of his bag and hand it to Mrs. Vandemeyer, and as he did
so he WINKED….
“I can’t tell you how that wink sort of froze me through and through. My
only thought was to get out in the corridor as quick as ever I could. I got up,
trying to look natural and easy. Perhaps they saw something–I don’t know–but
suddenly Mrs. Vandemeyer said ‘Now,’ and flung something over my nose and mouth
as I tried to scream. At the same moment I felt a terrific blow on the back of
my head….”
She shuddered. Sir James murmured something sympathetically. In a minute
she resumed:
“I don’t know how long it was before I came back to consciousness. I felt
very ill and sick. I was lying on a dirty bed. There was a screen round it, but
I could hear two people talking in the room. Mrs. Vandemeyer was one of them. I
tried to listen, but at first I couldn’t take much in. When at last I did begin
to grasp what was going on–I was just terrified! I wonder I didn’t scream
right out there and then.
“They hadn’t found the papers. They’d got the oilskin packet with the
blanks, and they were just mad! They didn’t know whether I’d changed the
papers, or whether Danvers had been carrying a dummy message, while the real one
was sent another way. They spoke of”–she closed her eyes–“torturing me to find