“Ay! I did n't notice it before,” muttered the doctor, as he took up the paper, affecting to read, but in reality to conceal his own confusion.
“They say the news nearly killed Darcy; he only heard it when going into the House last night, and was seized with an apoplectic fit, and carried home insensible.” This latter was, it is perhaps needless to say, pure invention of Heffernan, who found it necessary to continue talking as a means of detecting old Hickman's game. “Total ruin to that family of course results. Gleeson had raised immense sums to pay off the debts, and carried all away with him.”
“Ay!” muttered the doctor, as he seemed greatly occupied in arranging his papers on the table.
“You 'll be a loser too, sir, by all accounts,” added Heffernan.
“Not much,—a mere trifle,” said the doctor, without looking up from the papers. “But maybe he's not gone, after all; I won't believe it yet.”
“There seems little doubt on that head,” said Heffernan; “he changed three thousand pounds in notes for gold at Ball's after the bank was closed on Tuesday, and then went over to Finlay's, where he said he had a lodgment to make. He left his great-coat behind him, and never came back for it. I found that paper—it was the only one—in the breast pocket.”
“What is it? what is it?” repeated the old man, clutching eagerly at it.
“Nothing of any consequence,” said Heffernan, smiling; and he handed him a printed notice, setting forth that the United States barque, the “Congress,” of five hundred tons burden, would sail for New York on Wednesday, the 16th instant, at an hour before high water. “That looked suspicious, didn't it?” said Heffernan; “and on inquiry I found he had drawn largely out of, not only the banks in town, but from the provincial ones also. Now, that note addressed to yourself, for instance—”
“What note?” said Hickman, starting round as his face became pale as ashes; “give it to me—give it at once!”
But Heffernan held it firmly between his fingers, and merely shook his head, while, with a gentle smile, he said, “The banker who intrusted this letter to my hands was well aware of what importance it might prove in a court of justice, should this disastrous event demand a legal investigation.”