There was a spark of hope in what the lawyer said, and Walter eagerly grasped at it, and answered:
“I can never get over this shock; but I shall try to be courageous, Mr. Milburn. Take me to her. Let me see my dear mother. Perhaps I can do something for her.”
“Very well,” replied the lawyer. “Come this way.”
He turned into a street bordering the water front, and casting a rapid glance around, failed to see any one except three men, attired in the garb of sailors, crouching in an adjoining doorway.
The lawyer drew his handkerchief from his pocket, wiped his face with it, and while apparently returning it to his pocket, dropped it. Instantly the three sailors darted from the doorway.
One of them, in a captain’s uniform, darted up behind the boy, flung an arm around his neck, pulled his head back, and clapped a sponge saturated with chloroform to Walter Grey’s nostrils.
A cry of alarm pealed from the startled boy’s lips, but it was quickly checked by a pressure of his assailant’s arm, and the moment he began to inhale the fumes of the drug he became stupefied.
Milburn recoiled a few steps.
His dark eyes were flashing with excitement.
He cautiously glanced around, and then saw a young man coming.