At twelve o’clock he returned to his rooms and exchanged his riding-clothes for the ordinary garb of the West End. He even looked on his hall-table as he passed out again, to see if there were any note or card for him.
“He could scarcely look me up just yet, at any rate,” he reflected, as he walked slowly along Piccadilly, “for he did not even ask me for my address. He took the whole thing so coolly that perhaps he does not mean even to call.”
Nevertheless, he looked in the rack at his club to see if there was anything against his name, and tore into pieces the few unimportant notes he found there, with an impatience which they scarcely deserved. Of the few acquaintances whom he met there, he inquired casually whether they knew anything of a man named “Sabin.” No one seemed to have heard the name before. He even consulted a directory in the hall, but without success. At one o’clock, in a fit of restlessness, he went out, and taking a hansom drove over to Westminster, to Harcutt’s rooms. Harcutt was in, and with him Densham. At Wolfenden’s entrance the three men looked at one another, and there was a simultaneous laugh.
“Here comes the hero,” Densham remarked. “He will be able to tell us everything.”
“I came to gather information, not to impart it,” Wolfenden answered, selecting a cigarette, and taking an easy chair. “I know precisely as much as I knew last night.”
“Mr. Sabin has not been to pour out his gratitude yet, then?” Densham asked.
Wolfenden shook his head.
“Not yet. On the whole, I am inclined to think that he will not come at all. He doubtless considers that he has done all that is necessary in the way of thanks. He did not even ask for my card, and giving me his was only a matter of form, for there was no address upon it.”
“But he knew your name,” Harcutt reminded him. “I noticed that.”
“Yes. I suppose he could find me if he wished to,” Wolfenden admitted. “If he had been very keen about it, though, I should think he would have said something more. His one idea seemed to be to get away before there was a row.”