in a husky voice; "it is all I have now, but you shall have more; and here, take care of this," hurriedly writing a few words upon a scrap of paper. "See, I put it in the breast pocket with the purse. It is the name of a house at Liverpool. Stay there till you hear from me, and then you shall get right away from this. There is a cab waiting at the corner; tell him to drive to the nearest station. You follow me, Bob, you understand what I have said? The money is here in this pocket. Now quick! if anyone———" I read the thought in his heart. What if someone had come on the clue which had helped him, and should be already on the way. Is that a foot on the stair? No, all is quiet.
"He seemed too dazed to speak."
"Now go, I dare not go with you. Do not lose a moment. Downstairs, and then to the left. Tell him to drive fast. God bless you, Bob;" and following him to the head of the stair with broken utterances of endearment and caution, George watched the unsteady figure descend the steps, and listened with strained ears until he caught the sound of wheels driving rapidly away.
We waited for what seemed to me a long, long time, in a silence which I dared not break. And then we went out into the wet and deserted street.
We stopped at the corner where the cab had waited; and I watched my friend as he stood under the gas-lamp, looking out into the darkness with a far-away look in his eyes, not knowing, or at least not heeding, that the rain was beating upon his uncovered head.
There is a better smile on his face now, than the smile he wore early in the evening at the thought of his coming success. His reputation would suffer greatly, beyond doubt, but what is that to him?
He stands there a defeated—and a happy man.
I always meet Miles when I want to keep out of his way. So I was not surprised to come across him next day, walking by the Horse Guards.
"Ha, ha!" he shouted boisterously, before we had well met. "Queer go, wasn't it? What was? You haven’t heard from Markson? Oh, of course, he would be as mute as a fish. Hard lines on him, too, when he had got the whole thing as neat as could be. Went to the very house yesterday where Allan was. The man at the pub saw him go into the house. Ha! ha! what does my lord Allan do? Awfully sharp fellow! lets himself down by a rope out of the back window, and goes off in Markson's own cab—not bad, ha! ha! ha! Markson rushed after him too late. Smollett is furious that he was just out of it. He found out where Allan was hiding, and came on the scene a day behind
