The doctor hurried away without wasting more time. As he expected, the accident was a serious one. The poor man’s legs were both badly crushed, and it was some time before he could check the hæmorrhage sufficiently to make it safe for him to be removed to the hospital. When at last the sufferer had been made as comfortable as possible, and the doctor had helped to place him in a station ambulance, and had seen it start swiftly for its destination, he hurried back to find his cab.
There it was, waiting, as its driver had promised, just opposite the great clock, the man apparently half-asleep on the box.
The doctor glanced up at the clock as he passed it.
‘Sorry to keep you, cabby; but I couldn’t help it,’ he said pleasantly to the man, who must have been sleeping with one eye open, for he straightened himself and gathered up the reins as soon as he saw his fare appear. ‘And we have a long drive before us too. We wish to go to Hampstead, to a house called “Eversley,” just on the Heath. I will direct you to it when we get there.’
The man touched his hat with a smile which somehow lit up the whole of his rough, weather-beaten face. ‘My horse will soon take you over the ground. She’s a rare good little beast, and knows how to go. I hope the young gentleman isn’t very cold. I thought once of saying to him that he should go to the waiting-room over there, and then I thought as ’ow you might be here at any minute.’
‘Oh, he’ll be all right,’ said the doctor, opening the door.—‘Are you asleep, old fellow?’ he asked briskly. ‘I have been as quick as I could; but it has taken me fully a quarter of an hour.’
There was no answer, and he sprang into the cab with an exclamation of alarm. Had Vivian really gone to sleep, or, worn out with the strain and excitement, had he suddenly been taken ill? Impatiently he groped all round in the darkness. There was the travelling-rug, and there was the hand-bag on the floor—he tripped over it, and for one horrible moment thought it was his son. Then he struck a match and looked round. The truth which had been dawning on him for the last few seconds, and which he had refused to believe, was now quite plain, quite certain. The cab was empty. Vivian had disappeared.