A great crowd had assembled in front of the burning flat. The red outlines of a couple of engines could be seen; beyond the crowd there was a sound and regular rush of pumping water; and presently the crowd seemed to understand that all danger was over. Jack touched his companion's arm, and called his attention to the fact that Carrington and Anstruther were standing within earshot of them.
"And what are you going to do now?" asked the latter.
"Oh, I shall go off and stay at the Great Metropolitan. No, you needn't come along--I have had about enough of your company for to-night."
Carrington called a hansom, and was whirled away. Seymour smiled in a significant manner.
"Wouldn't it be as well," he suggested, "that you also found it convenient to pass the night at the Great Metropolitan? Padini is there, too, and it is possible that you may----"
"Right you are," Jack said eagerly. "Then I can call upon you in the morning and report progress. Good-night."
[CHAPTER XXX.]
BEDROOM 14.
Jack had not waited to ask any idle questions; he had felt quite sure from Seymour's manner that the latter had some great scheme in hand. It was very pleasant and exhilarating to feel that a man of Seymour's wonderful fertility and courage should be enlisted on his side. Masefield was not without hope that the discoveries of the night were not yet complete. He strolled away in the direction of the Great Metropolitan, turning these things over in his mind.
It seemed to him that the clerk in the office of the mammoth hotel regarded him somewhat suspiciously, seeing that he had arrived without luggage of any kind; but a deposit of a sovereign soon set that matter right. It occurred to Jack as a good idea to secure a bedroom as nearly as possible next to that of Carrington. The hotel was not particularly busy, he discovered, for nobody had come in enquiring for bedroom accommodation during the last hour. This was a discovery in itself, for it testified to the fact that Carrington had not yet arrived.