The valet, who was at the other end of the room engaged in closing the window blinds to exclude the hot rays of the mid-day sun, turned and hurried toward the bedside.
“What o’clock is it, Simms?”
“A quarter-past twelve, sir,” answered the man, after consulting his silver timepiece.
“At what hour did Dr. Dietz say that he would return here?”
“At ten to-night, sir, unless something unexpected should turn up to cause you to require his services before that time. In which case, sir, I was to sent a mounted messenger after him.”
“Not return until ten o’clock; that is well; for I must get away from this place to-day; and if he were here he would be sure to oppose my doing so, and I want no controversy with my kind physician,—Simms!”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go fetch me a time-table of the boats that leave the Island to-day.”
Simms vanished, and after an absence of a few minutes returned and said:
“If you please sir, there are no time-tables. But the head waiter says as how the only boat that leaves St. Aubins for England is the steamer that sails for Southampton at ten o’clock every morning.”