"What!" cried the alarmed Selina, "you haven't been lending him money I hope, Henry Adolphus ?"

"Well, I did lend him a few pounds; but he has acted on the square, and it's all serene."

Mr. Dobb had not forgotten the I O U's which he held for his lost thirty pounds, but he fondly believed that Gervoise would eventually find the money to redeem those documents, as he had done when hard driven for the still more pressing debt.

Selina promised to be civil to the sub-lieutenant whenever he appeared. But Mr. Catheron

did not drop in that evening, as the clerk had expected him to do.

CHAPTER VIII.

NUMBER 69669.

THE family surgeon and another surgeon-a mighty master of his awful science, who had been summoned from London by telegram-held a consultation in the yellow drawing-room at the Abbey as to the state of Mr. Arthur Holimpromptu bed in the darkened and silent chamber where the grim Neptune drove his sea-horses above the index of time.

royde, lying on his

The two surgeons had no very satisfactory account to give of their patient. He had been shot in the back, and the bullet had gone through the lungs. This was the gist of what the surgeons stated, though they shrouded the dismal truth in a hazy atmosphere of technicalities. There had been cases in which men had survived the perforation of the lungs by a bullet, and had

lived to be strong and hearty again; but these cases were few, so few that the London surgeon was able to give Sir Jasper a catalogue of them as he discussed the state of his patient.

"I shall remain here for to-night, since you wish me to do so," said the great man; "for I will not conceal from you the fact that the case is critical, very critical, and I doubt if my worthy coadjutor has had much experience of such cases. My people will telegraph to me if I am urgently wanted in London, and I shall go back by an early train-in time for my consultations. In the mean time I shall be on the spot to watch for any change in the symptoms."

"Let every thing that is within the compass of medical science be done for this gentleman," said Sir Jasper; "he is neither my friend nor my kinsman; but he has been my guest, and was on his homeward way from my house when he was struck by his assassin. I scarcely know whether I am most anxious for the preservation of his life, or the discovery of his treacherous assailant."

VOL. III.

14

André Chenier called the classic goddess of vengeance a "Némésis tardive;" but modern justice is rarely slow of foot. The clerk at Roxborough station, who telegraphed the message that summoned the great surgeon, telegraphed another message that was carried straight to the chiefs of Scotland Yard; and before the surgeon had left his consulting-room in Cavendish Square, a detective officer was on his way to Roxborough, to hold solemn conference with the local police and to begin his work forthwith. Of course he proceeded without loss of time to the Abbey, stopping to inspect the scene of the murder on his way; the spot where the gentleman's horse had been found neighing dismally, and the other spot where the gentleman himself was discovered lying on his face, and leading up to which there was a trail, which showed how the gentleman had been dragged some yards before his foot disengaged itself from the stirrup. At the Abbey, the detective honoured Mrs. Brownlow with a hearing, and received from that lady the contents of Arthur Holroyde's pockets. After in

specting these, the official waited on Sir Jasper Denison. "I think I have got at the motive of the attack, sir," he said, "and that's something. Did you know that the gentleman had a considerable sum of money about him?”

"No, I am quite ignorant of his affairs.”

"Well, he had, sir. Three hundred pounds in bank-notes; I've found the numbers of the notes in his pocket-book, with the date of their receipt. They were received yesterday."

"That is quite impossible," answered Sir Jasper; "Mr. Holroyde never quitted my house yesterday until he left it in the evening. There must be a mistake in the date."

"Well, there may be, sir; but I should fancy from the look of the gentleman's pocketbook, that he was a very methodical par-person. We're obliged to look into papers and letters, and such like, you see, sir, without leave or license when a gentleman has been all but murdered, and doesn't know who attacked him. I suppose there was no one in your house, sir, likely to pay Mr. Holroyde money."