"Well, I don't see what else it can be. The fellow may have outrun the
constable, and need some ready money to put him straight. Rely upon this
much, Sam--that his habits are as fast as they can well be. I have been
learning a little about him lately."
Sam made no answer. He began to look grave.
"Not at all the sort of man who ought to marry Mina, or any other tender
young girl. He'd break her heart in a twelvemonth."
Sam spoke up. "I said to Johnny Ludlow, just now, that it might be
better to tell Dr. Knox. Perhaps----"
"What about?" interrupted the doctor himself, pouncing in upon us, and
catching the words as he opened the door. "What have you to tell Dr.
Knox about, Sam? And why are all you young men sitting up here? You'd be
better in bed."
The last straw, you know, breaks the camel's back. Whether Sam would
really have disclosed the matter to Dr. Knox, I can't say; the doctor's
presence and the doctor's question decided it.
Sam spoke in a low tone, standing behind the drug-counter with the
doctor, who had gone round to look at some entry in what they called the
day-book, and had lighted a gas-burner to do it by. Dr. Knox made no
remark of any kind while he listened, his eyes fixed on the book: one
might have thought he did not hear, but his lips were compressed.
"If she were not so young, sir--a child, as may be said--I should not
have presumed to speak," concluded Sam. "I don't know whether I have
done wrong or right."
"Right," emphatically pronounced the doctor.
But the word had hardly left his lips when there occurred a startling
interruption. The outer door of the surgery, the one he had come in by,
was violently drummed at, and then thrown open. Charlotte Knox, Miss
Mack the governess, and Sally the maid--the same Sally who had been at
Rose Villa when the trouble occurred about Janet Carey, and the same
Miss Mack who had replaced Janet--came flocking in.
"Dicky's lost, Arnold," exclaimed Charlotte.
"Dicky lost!" repeated Dr. Knox. "How can he be lost at this time of
night?"
"He _is_ lost. And we had nearly gone to bed without finding it out. The
people had all left, and the doors were locked, when some one--Gerty, I
think--began to complain of Dicky----"
"It was I who spoke," interposed the governess; and though she was fat
enough for two people she had the meekest little voice in the world, and
allowed herself to be made a perfect tool of at Rose Villa. "Dicky did
behave very ill at supper, eating rudely of everything, and----"
"Yes, yes," broke in Charlotte, "I remember now, Macky. You said Dicky
ought to be restrained, and you wondered he was not ill; and then mamma
called out, 'But where is Dicky?' 'Gone to bed to sleep off his supper,'
we all told her: and she sent Sally up to see that he had put his candle
out."
"And of course," interrupted Sally, thinking it was her turn to begin,
"when I found the room empty, and saw by the moonlight that Master
Dicky had not come to bed at all, I ran down to say so. And his mamma
got angry, accusing us servants of having carelessly locked him
out-of-doors. And he can't be found, sir--as Miss Lotty says."
"No, he cannot be found anywhere," added Lotty. "We have searched the
house and the gardens, and been in to inquire at Lady Jenkins's; and he
is _gone_. And mamma is frantic, and said we were to come to you,
Arnold."
"Master Dicky's playing truant: he has gone off with some of the
guests," observed Dr. Knox.
"Well, mamma is putting herself into a frightful fever over him, Arnold.
That old well in the field at the back was opened the day before
yesterday; she says Dicky may have strayed there and fallen in."
"Dicky's after more mischief than that," said the doctor, sagely. "A
well in a solitary field would have no charms for Dicky. I tell you,
Lotty, he must have marched home with some one or other. Had you any
lads up there to-night?"
"No, not any. You know mamma never will have them. Lads, _and_ Dicky,
would be too much."
"If Master Dicky have really gone off, as the doctor thinks, I'd lay
my next quarter's wages that it's with Captain Collinson," cried Sally.
"He is always wanting to be after the captain."
Lotty lifted her face, a gleam of intelligence flashing across it.
"Perhaps that's it," she said; "I should not wonder if it is. He has
strayed off after, or with, Captain Collinson. What is to be done,
Arnold?"
"Not strayed with him, I should think," observed the doctor. "Captain
Collinson, if he possesses any sense or consideration, would order Dicky
back at once."
"Won't you come with us to the captain's lodgings, Arnold, and see?"
cried Charlotte. "It would not do, would it, for us to go there alone at
this time of night? The captain may be in bed."
Arnold Knox looked at his sister; looked at the three of them, as if he
thought they were enough without him. He was nearly done up with his
long day's work.
"I suppose I had better go with you, Lotty," he said. "Though I don't
think Captain Collinson would kidnap any one of you if you went alone."
"Oh dear, no; it is Mina he wants to kidnap, not us," answered Lotty,
freely. And Arnold glanced at her keenly as he heard the words.
Did you ever know a fellow in the hey-dey of his health and restlessness
who was not ready for any night expedition--especially if it were to
search after something lost? Dr. Knox took up his hat to accompany the
visitors, and we three took up ours.
We proceeded in a body through the moonlit streets to Collinson's
lodgings; the few stragglers we met no doubt taking us all for benighted
wayfarers, trudging home from some one or other of the noted Lefford
soirées. Collinson had the rooms at the hairdresser's--good rooms,
famed as the best lodgings in the town. The gas was alight in his
sitting-room over the shop; a pretty fair proof that the captain was
yet up.
"Stay, Lotty," said Dr. Knox, arresting her impatient hand, that was
lifted to pull the bell. "No need to arouse the house: I dare say Pink
and his family are in bed. I will go up to Collinson."
It was easy to say so, but difficult to do it. Dr. Knox turned the
handle of the door to enter, and found it fastened. He had to ring,
after all.
Nobody answered it. Another ring and another shared the same fate. Dr.
Knox then searched for some small loose stones, and flung them up at the
window. It brought forth no more than the bell had.
"Dicky can't be there, or that gravel would have brought him to the
window," decided Lotty. "I should say Captain Collinson is not there,
either."
"He may be in his room at the back," observed Dr. Knox. And he rang
again.
Presently, after a spell of at least ten minutes' waiting, and no end
of ringing, an upper window was opened and a head appeared--that of
the hairdresser.
"Whatever's the matter?" called out he, seeing us all below. "It's not
fire, is it?"
"I am sorry to disturb you, Pink," called back Dr. Knox. "It is Captain
Collinson I want. Is he in, do you know?"
"Yes, sir; he came in about twenty minutes ago, and somebody with
him, for I heard him talking," answered Pink. "He must be in his
sitting-room, if he is not gone to bed."
"There is a light in the room, but I don't think he can be in. I have
thrown up some gravel, and he does not answer."
"I'll come down and see, sir."
Pink, the most obliging little man in the world, descended to the
captain's room and thence to us at the door. Captain Collinson was not
in. He had gone out again, and left his gas alight.
"You say some one came in with him, Pink. Was it a young lad?"
"I can't tell, sir. I heard the captain's latch-key, and I heard him
come on upstairs, talking to somebody; but I was just dropping off to
sleep, so did not take much notice."
That the somebody was young Dick, and that Captain Collinson had gone
out to march Dick home again, seemed only probable. There was nothing
for it but to go on to Rose Villa and ascertain; and we started for it,
after a short consultation.
"I shall not have the remotest idea where to look for Dick if he is not
there," remarked Dr. Knox.
"And in that case, I do believe mamma will have a fit," added Charlotte.
"A real fit, I mean, Arnold. I wish something could be done with Dicky!
The house is always in a commotion."
Captain Collinson was at Rose Villa, whether Dicky was or not. At the
garden-gate, talking to Mina in the moonlight, stood he, apparently
saying good-night to her.
"Dicky? oh dear, yes; I have just brought Dicky back," laughed the
captain, before Dr. Knox had well spoken his young half-brother's name,
while Mina ran indoors like a frightened hare. "Upon getting home to my
rooms just now I found some small mortal stealing in after me, and it
proved to be Dicky. He followed me home to get a top I had promised him,
and which I forgot to bring up here when I came to-night."
"I hope you did not give it him," said Dr. Knox.
"Yes, I did. I should never have got him back without," added the
captain. "Good-night."
He laughed again as he went away. Dicky's vagaries seemed to be rare fun
for him.
Dicky was spinning the top on the kitchen table when we went in--for
that's where they had all gathered: Mrs. Knox, Gerty, Kate, and the
cook. A big humming-top, nearly as large and as noisy as Dick. Dr. Knox
caught up the top and caught Dicky by the hand, and took both into the
parlour.
"Now then, sir!" he sternly asked. "What did you mean by this night's
escapade?"
"Oh, Arnold, don't scold him," implored Mrs. Knox, following them in
with her hands held up. "It _was_ naughty of him, of course, and it gave
me a dreadful fright; but it was perhaps excusable, and he is safe at
home again. The captain was to bring the top, and did not, and poor
Dicky ran after him to get it."
"You be quiet, Arnold; I am not to be scolded," put in cunning Dicky.
"You just give me my top."
"As to scolding you, I don't know that it would be of any further use:
the time seems to have gone by for it, and I must take other measures,"
spoke Dr. Knox. "Come up to bed now, sir. I shall see you in it before
I leave."
"But I want my top."
"Which you will not have," said the doctor: and he marched off Dicky.
"How cross you are with him, Arnold!" spoke his step-mother when the
doctor came down again, leaving Dicky howling on his pillow for the top.
"It needs some one to be cross with him," observed Dr. Knox.
"He is only a little boy, remember."
"He is big enough and old enough to be checked and corrected--if it ever
is to be done at all. I will see you to-morrow: I wish to have some
conversation with you."
"About Dicky?" she hastily asked.
"About him and other things. Mina," he added in a low tone, as he passed
her on his way out, but I, being next to him, caught the words, "I did
not like to see you at the gate with Captain Collinson at this hour. Do
not let it occur again. Young maidens cannot be too modest."
And, at the reproof, Miss Mina coloured to the very roots of her hair.