Sending on his valet with his luggage to Mivart’s, he himself got into a cab and drove to the Morley House. Arrived there, he went into the reading-room to make inquiries, for the child might have been found, even after that last advertisement had been sent to the paper.
“Has the lost boy been found up to this morning?” he inquired of the bookkeeper or clerk of the house.
“No, sir,—nor ever will be, I fear; but here is Mr. Hammond—perhaps he can tell you more,” answered that official.
Alexander turned, and found himself face to face with Dick.
They had parted in anger the last time they had spoken together; but now, for different reasons, both forgot that anger,—Alexander, in his recovered sanity and in his gratitude for Dick’s services; and Dick himself in the frankness of his heart and the compassion he felt for the sick and suffering man. Their hands met, and——
“Dick!”
“Alick!”
Were the first words they spoke.
“Has the child been heard of?”
“No,” sighed Hammond.