Here Dick trod slyly upon his uncle’s toe.
The General stopped short.
Drusilla perceived that there was a secret between them that must be kept; so, without suspecting that it concerned herself or her Alick, she respected it, and turned away her head until the General recovered himself sufficiently to pursue the subject in another manner.
“You asked me how I learned little Lenny’s loss, my dear. Well, yesterday morning I was sitting by the bedside of a friend whom I had undertaken to look after, when the morning papers were brought to me, and I saw the advertisement. That was at nine o’clock. There was a boat left at ten for Southampton, and I took it and reached port at midnight, I took the first train for London and got here this morning.”
Such was the General’s explanation, given in the presence of Drusilla.
It was not until after they had all breakfasted, and he found himself in his own bedroom alone with Dick, that he was able to make a report upon Alick’s condition—a report that Dick subsequently transmitted to Anna.
“Well, his condition is even more precarious than when you left him; irritative fever has set in, and he is delirious—or was so when I left him. He had not once recognized me. I know the surgeon thinks him in a very dangerous condition; although, of course, he will not admit so much to me. But oh, Dick! the child! the child!”
“Be comforted, sir. The child was safe and well in this city yesterday. We have the most skilful and experienced detectives in the world searching for him, and they will be sure to succeed.”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ALEXANDER STRIKES A LIGHT.
“A death-bed’s a detector of the heart.”