'What have you been doing now?' asked a voice behind him.
His sister Deborah again! He grew very pale and nearly dropped his pipe. 'How much had she overhead?' was his first thought; 'curse this habit of thinking aloud!' was his second.
'You are always stealing on a fellow unawares, Deb,' said he, in a thick and uncertain voice; 'it is deuced unpleasant—startles one so.'
Her face was pale as usual; but her eyes and mouth expressed anger, pain, and a good deal of indignation and contempt too.
'What have you done?' she demanded categorically.
'Nothing,' said he, striving to collect his thoughts; 'but made my way here in a devil of a shower, for want of other shelter.'
'You know what has happened?'
'To Lindsay—yes.'
'You do?' she exclaimed, making a step forward, with a hand on her side, as if her usual pain was there.
'I know that he is absent—missing—that is all,' he replied doggedly.