The Doctor, being ignorant of the connecting links of thought, may be pardoned if, at this momentous juncture, he mentally consigned the Captain to the limbo of eternal darkness. His arms dropped, and he asked, wonderingly,
"What has he got to do with it?"
"Mobley, can't you understand?" She laid a hand lightly upon his broad chest, regarding him now with a look of anxious seriousness.
"I said there were other things," she went on; "that there was something else we must consider before we think of—of our own happiness. This awful cloud still hangs over us, and until it is cleared away, I am afraid. It is selfish—wrong—for us to consider our own happiness at such a time. He is the only one who can clear that cloud away, Mobley. Oh, why doesn't he come? It is time! It is time!"
Doctor Westbrook's impatience evinced itself only by a shrug of the shoulders.
"I have no such hope," said he. "He's like all the rest of them; unless a thing's as plain as a pikestaff, he can't do any more than an ordinary mortal,—unless, again, it's further to complicate matters and cause more trouble. Why doesn't he come, indeed! He will, perhaps, when the whole affair has had time to die of inanition."
Now, neither of them had heard footsteps in the hall, so deeply were they engrossed, and when a sudden knock was struck upon the door, both started. Charlotte sat down in some confusion, and, after a second's hesitation, the Doctor called, "Come in," his tone betraying his vexation at the interruption.
The door opened barely wide enough to admit a tall, slender man, a stranger to Charlotte, but one whose features were somehow familiar. The movement was silent and stealthy. His look shot about the entire apartment, apparently without noting its two human occupants. He noiselessly closed the door again, and placed his back against it. Charlotte glanced at the physician and perceived that he was regarding the intruder with frank disfavor and an annoyance he did not attempt to conceal.
"Your name's Adams, is it not?" the Doctor sharply asked.
The man ducked his head in a swift bow of acknowledgment. When he stood upright again he held a card in his hand. The action was like a sleight-of-hand performance, so quickly was it done; for Charlotte was entirely unable to see where that card came from.