Roy thanked him again and accepted. He liked the genial hearted fellow as much as Rex had done.
On the way down Atkins told him of the devices for disposing of the punch.
“You don’t suppose the glass he drank went to his head so as to do him any injury, do you?” asked Roy.
Atkins reassured him on this point, and then suggested that they had better go to the hotel where the jollification had been held to see if any trace of Rex could be obtained there.
But the clerk informed them that no such person had hired a room.
That evening they discussed the matter with Judge Atkins without telling the details of the jollification, which doubtless he was astute enough to guess at. The result was that messages were sent to all the police precincts, and a detective was put on the case.
Roy sent a telegram to his mother Saturday night making it as hopeful as he could, but his own heart was growing heavier and heavier.
Atkins did his best to cheer him up, and under other circumstances Roy would have had a most enjoyable time. But he could not keep his thoughts from Rex.
He went home on Monday, fearful of the meeting with his mother. He felt at times as if the worst news, if it might be but definite, would be better to carry home than those tidings he must take, which would keep them all in such awful suspense.
Sydney had recovered, but the shock of Roy’s announcement threw him back into a relapse. And yet he insisted on seeing Roy.