There was no answer.

I jumped out of bed and looked at my watch by the window. It was five o’clock in the morning.

“Oh,” I said, “this is wicked—this is infamous. The idea of those fellows sitting burning the gas till this time in the morning in a respectable house, and my great gaby of a husband not going up and telling them of it.”

I hurried on some of my things, and went down the stairs.

I had to pass No. 16. The door was wide open and the gas was out.

Whatever could it mean?

A terrible thought flashed through my brain.

They had murdered Harry, robbed the house, and decamped.

How I got down to the bar-parlour I don’t know. Terror gave me strength.

Directly I got to the door I saw the gas was still on there. I pushed the door open and ran in, and there was Harry fast asleep in the arm-chair, with the newspaper in his lap and his pipe dropped out of his mouth and lying on the hearthrug.