"I don't think so," he said weakly. "What I really want is a good stiff drink."
Joe, who had stepped out on the floor, and picked up the candle, glanced hastily round the room, then with a sudden exclamation he darted across toward a shelf by the bed.
"'Ere we are!" he cried triumphantly. "'Ere's the very thing!"
He wrenched out the cork from a half-empty bottle of rum, and hurrying back to where Colin was lying, dropped down on one knee alongside of him.
"'Ave a go at this, doctor," he urged. "Nothing like rum to warm yer up when you're wet through."
He tilted forward the bottle, and, putting his lips to the neck, Colin gulped in a generous mouthful. The raw spirit sent a comforting glow all through his chilled and exhausted body, and with a fresh effort he struggled up into a sitting position.
"Thank you both," he gasped, with the ghost of a smile. "Sorry not to have said it before, but I'm only just beginning to get my bearings." He stared a little dizzily from one to the other of them. "Where are 'Spike' Cooper and his friends, and how in the name of all that's wonderful did you manage to find your way here?"
"It was Joe," said Nancy. "He had been watching this house for the last two days, and he had seen them go in and out. When you didn't come back he felt sure you must have been trapped."
"So we just come along to see wot was 'appening," continued Joe, removing his mouth from the bottle. "And bleedin' lucky we did, too, judgin' by the way things was shapin'."
Colin passed his hand over his forehead. "But how did you get in?" he asked. "What have you done with the others?"