“It’s no good, miss. I doubt myself if he’ll live to reach the gate. You had better send the cab away, and I’ll take you to the ’orspital.”
“Tell me about it, any way. What did you see?” Maimie asked feverishly, as the policeman pushed a way for her through the crowd, after she had dismissed the cab.
“All I saw as I come along Oxford Street was ten or twelve people round an old party as I thought was preachin’ on the pavement. I went to move ’em on, and a lady bursts out and ketches ’old of me that tight I couldn’t move. ‘Oh, policeman, policeman!’ she says; ‘murder! save him! fetch a doctor, quick!’ and ’olds me tight all the time, while the old chap goes on jawin’ to the crowd about a righteous vengeance and the task of his ’ole life, and his father bein’ shot and his mother turned out of doors in a winter’s night, and defyin’ anybody to arrest him, though he’d thrown down his knife. And then, all of a sudden, while I was strugglin’ to get free from the lady, he give a great yell and cried out, ‘It’s the wrong man—not the Archduke!’ and caught up a long knife with blood drippin’ from it off of the pavement, and went for the people. They made room for him pretty quick, I can tell you, and he rushed across into ’Olborn, and me after him. You’d have said he was mad if you’d seen him charge the traffic just like an army, as I did, and he’d near got through when he was knocked down by a dray. And there’s no need to take him to ’orspital. And what was it you saw, miss?”
“I just saw him standing on the side-walk and watching, and then he ran across and pulled out something, and struck—and struck—and then——” Maimie’s voice failed her.
“Case of mistaken hidentity,” remarked the policeman complacently, “but it’s not often those foreigners make mistakes. Now it’s a curious thing——”
But Maimie was not destined to receive further enlightenment from his stores of wisdom, for they had arrived at the hospital gate by this time, and Usk was coming out of it, looking like a man who was going to be hanged.
“He’s gone!” he said heavily, in answer to Maimie’s gasp of inquiry—“died just as they carried him in. But you’re here—and you know all about it—you’ll be able to tell Félicia. I didn’t know how to break it to her. I was trying to think what I should say if I had to tell Phil that our father was dead. But you’re a woman, you know how to put things, you can soften it to her——”
“Oh, I can’t! I daren’t!” cried Maimie, shrinking back. Then she remembered in a flash that if she threw the burden of the disclosure upon Usk, it would be a tacit recognition of his position with regard to Félicia. No, he was not engaged to her yet, and if Maimie could help it, the engagement should not take place.
“I guess I’ll have to do it,” she said resolutely.
“I’ll take you back to the hotel,” said Usk. “The policeman will call a hansom, for I’m sure you can’t walk.”