When I had conveyed my fair charges home I made a severe headache an excuse, and bidding them good-night, set off on foot for my own abode. But my brain was too full of anxiety to entertain any idea of bed, so, turning off from the direct route, I wandered down to the Green Park and on to the Embankment, thence through Lincoln's Inn Fields to Oxford Street, and so round to Cavendish Square. By the time I let myself into my house it was nearly three o'clock and a beautiful morning. Passing along the hall, I went into my consulting room and lit the gas. A letter lay upon the table, addressed in my sister's handwriting, and marked "Immediate." With a sickening fear in my heart, I tore it open and read:
Dear George:
Come to me at once, without an instant's delay. Alie has been arrested.
Your frantic sister,
Janet.
The blow had fallen! My little shirking of an unpleasant duty had ruined the woman I loved. Oh, how bitterly I reproached myself for my delay in reporting my discovery. But if I had hesitated then, I did not do so now. A second or two later I had let myself out again and was off, as fast as I could go, on my way back to South Kensington.
CHAPTER XIII.
Never shall I forget the misery of that walk back from Cavendish Square to South Kensington; I seemed to be tramping for ever, and all the time the words "Alie has been arrested!" "Alie has been arrested!" were singing and drumming in my ears with relentless reiteration. When I reached the house the sun was above the roof tops and I was wearied almost to the point of dropping. I rang the bell, and the peal had not died away before poor, heavy-eyed Janet had opened the door to me. Without a word she led me into her morning-room, the room where I had first told her of my love for Alie, and, having made me sit down, would not let me speak until I had partaken of some refreshment. I filled my glass, but pushed my plate away from me; I could drink, but I was far too miserable to eat.
"Janet," I cried, "for Heaven's sake tell me, as quickly as you can, all that has happened!"
"My poor George," she said; "as I told you in my note, Alie has been arrested. You had not left the house more than a quarter of an hour before two men called and asked to be allowed to see me on most important business. They were shown in here and, when we were alone, requested permission to see Alie. I went to fetch her and brought her down with me. Then one of the men advanced towards her with a paper in his hand and said 'Alie Dunbar, in the Queen's name I arrest you on a charge of piracy upon the High Seas.' Oh! it was horrible, and I can see it all now!"