"Let us talk low," murmured the ex-detective. "For after all, there may be spies about, and besides, I don't want Rachel disturbed."
"Fancy telling that to medical men," laughed Browne, softly.
Kind, relieved in his mind that Rachel's life was safe, smiled also, and placed two stools and an old chair close together. When the doctors were seated, he got out glasses, and a bottle of whisky, and the three had drinks, which, under the circumstances, they very much needed. While Kind was preparing his hospitality, Browne glanced round the narrow space of the caravan.
It was oblong, with a high roof, and excellently fitted up, something after the style of a cabin at sea, that is, with a due regard to economy of space. The arched roof and deal walls were painted yellow. From the former dangled various articles of merchandise, such as Kind sold, and the latter were decorated with pictures cut from various papers, and pasted on the wood in every available corner. At one end was a door divided into two pieces, so that the upper or lower half could be opened at will. Facing this, and placed sideways was the bed, or rather the bunk, in which Rachel was sleeping. It was comfortable enough, and gay with red curtains. Against one wall was the leaf of a table fastened with iron rods, and the other wall supported a cupboard in which food was stored. Two hooks immediately above the heads of the trio, and near the door, showed that Kind slung a hammock for his own sleeping accommodation. The whole place was clean and neat, and Browne thought that many people were worse housed than these imitation gipsies. They followed the example of the Tartar tribes, and in their wheeled dwelling moved about from place to place, at home everywhere, and picking up their living in all quarters.
"But," said Browne, thoughtfully sipping his whisky, "if anyone enters the caravan, Herries will be discovered."
"We can hide him," said Kind, cunningly.
"Where?" asked the doctor, staring round the confined space. "I don't see any hiding-place."
"Nor does anyone else, or it wouldn't be a hiding-place. But we can trust you, doctor, and----" Kind stooped and gave a hard twist to one of the iron rods which supported the side table. At once the floor of the vehicle parted in the middle, and displayed an oblong, shallow space where a man, with some discomfort, could lie at full length. "I had that made," added the Cheap-jack, "after my own design. I haven't been in the detective force for nothing, and thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a place where I could hide things from thieves. All my best goods were stowed there, but I shifted them when Mr. Herries came. While he was being hunted for, far and wide, he was lying there as snug as a pig."
"Very ingenious," said Browne, while Kind closed the hiding-place in the same manner in which he had opened it, "but I don't know how Herries did come here?"
"Elspeth saved me, bless her," said the young man, his blue eyes lighting up. "When she heard how ill Mrs. Kind was, and Trent refused to let me see her, even under escort, she came out and interviewed my friend here," he indicated the Cheap-jack, "and said that she would bring me. Then she returned to the inn, and went up to my room to----"