“Home, sir, and wait for news!”
All was not lost, then. But that station with the brawling stream beyond, and the square and ugly tavern overlooking it all, have a terror for me which it will take years for me to overcome.
LXVII
I did not tell Orpha of this episode, then or ever. Why burden her young heart with griefs and fears? I merely informed her when I met her the next morning at breakfast that having seen Edgar take a late train for New York my anxieties were quelled and I had returned to tell her so before starting out again for the city on an errand of my own.
When I came to say good-by, as I did after receiving a telegram from Clarke—of which I will say more later—I told her not to be anxious or to worry while I was away; that being in New York, I should be able to keep a watch over Edgar and see that he was well looked after if by any chance he fell ill again; and the smile I received in return, though infinitely sad, had such confidence in it that I would not have exchanged it for the gayest one I had seen on her lips on that memorable night of the ball.
The telegram I have mentioned was none too encouraging. It had been sent from New York and ran thus:
Trouble. Man I want has escaped me. Hope to pick him up soon. Wait for second telegram. C.
It was two hours before the second one came. It was to the point as witness:
Sick. Safe in a small hospital in the Bronx. Will await trains at the Grand Central Station till you come.
C.