"That fellow certainly did mean to do it," replied Dr. Bentley with emphasis. "It's an old trick in a crowd—this sort of sham sickness."
"And he got all my Christmas money—every cent of it—and carried it off with him!" wailed one woman, who looked as though she could not afford to lose much money.
"He snatched my locket with the diamond in it!" vengefully exclaimed another woman, exhibiting the broken ends of a neck chain.
"My purse is gone. I had forty-two dollars in it."
"I didn't get off very lightly, ladies," replied Dr. Bentley. "My scarf pin wasn't so extremely valuable, but I feel badly about the watch, and I shall feel worse when I realize its loss more fully. That was my father's watch, and I valued it above money."
"The police ought to catch that scoundrel," declared one of the women losers.
"Of course they ought," cried another. "If they don't catch the thief what good are the police, anyway?"
"I don't care much about their finding him, unless they also find my forty-two dollars on him," mournfully proclaimed another of the losers.
"I am sorry for you, ladies. I don't deserve any sympathy, or very little, for myself. Well, as the scoundrel has gotten away, and as young Prescott is growing stronger, I shall go on my way to other patients who need me."
Dick was still rather dizzy and weak, but Dave's right arm supported him.