"'The poor fellow can never tell us anything now; he was dead before they brought him in. This poor creature's hours are numbered too." He went out to the constables who had brought the accident in. "One of you had better come inside," he said; "the lady is dying, but she may recover consciousness before the end," and, with an inspector of police, he resumed his seat by the side of the bed. A quiver moved the tired eyelids, so faint that only the surgeon saw it. He bent over Lavender.
"Lavender Holt," she murmured, her dazed brain reverting to what had been almost her last conscious thought, and rhythmically the words forced themselves from the white lips again and yet again—"Lavender Holt—Lavender Holt."
"You are Lavender Holt?" the surgeon asked, and she made a sign of assent.
"Can that be the woman who has been advertised for from Fairbridge Manor?" the inspector whispered, an eager light shining in his eyes; "the missing widow of the murdered man?"
The silence was painfully long drawn out, but again the white lips tried to frame a name, and this time the inspector's suggestion helped.
"Try Ashley," he murmured, and with wonderful skill the surgeon encouraged the wavering brain to act.
"You are Lady Holt," he said, "and you want to see Mr. Ashley, is that it?"
A look of relief crossed her face. It was enough that her wish was understood, but too much for her to grasp the fact that there was any danger for anyone in what the wish involved. Behind her vacant look the surgeon saw the glimmer of consciousness, and with infinite patience he extracted from her that it was Melville whom she wished to see, and that he lived in Jermyn Street.
"That is the brother of the suspect," the inspector whispered. "You had better send for him at once," and without any delay a messenger was despatched in a cab to Melville's chambers.
Before the tiny wave of strength had ebbed, Lavender found means to ask for Lucille too, and said that she lived at The Vale, South Kensington. That much done, her brain became clouded again, and for a space the others could only wait and watch.