"I can do no good by staying here, doctor," said Henry, after a pause; "but if you will kindly describe the spot where the accident took place, I can make inquiries about the carpet bag to-morrow. In the meantime, as Mr. Franklyn cannot be moved, I am sure we may leave him safely here, and pay whatever expenses are incurred for him while in the hospital."
"If his friends wish to do so, it can be easily arranged," said Dr. Gordon, as he and Henry descended the stairs; "and you may depend upon having a telegram from me should a change for the worse take place."
The two gentlemen parted at the door of the hospital, the one to wend his way homeward after his arduous duties, and the other to find himself in the streets of London on a Sunday night within half an hour of midnight.
He had left his own carpet bag at an hotel near Guy's, and here, after a day of excitement and fatigue, he was at last able to take some slight refreshment. Although almost without appetite he felt it as a duty he owed himself to try to eat a little.
"I must telegraph home and to the rectory in the morning," he said to himself as he sought this pillow; "if I stay in London till to-morrow I may perhaps hear something of this carpet bag which appears to disturb poor Arthur's mind so terribly."
Early next morning Henry was down at the wharf described by Dr. Gordon, and, without acknowledging his relationship, questioned those on the spot about the gentleman who had fallen into the water on the previous Friday.
Full particulars were soon obtained of the accident, and then his informant remarked—
"I suppose you see'd an account of the haccident in the papers, master?"
"No," he replied, almost with a start; "what paper is it in?"
"Oh, pretty nigh all on 'em, for you see we thought for sure the gentleman were dead; but he frightened the two bobbies that went with him in the cab above a bit by jumping up and crying out about his carpet bag. I suppose there was some valuables in that 'ere bag, but the Thames searchers have been a-looking for it ever since, and they ain't seen nothing on it yet."