you come from sea don't touch the drink."

Mark Heath lay back thinking, and with the puzzle pretty well fitted
together now all but what had happened since, half wild with exhaustion
and excitement, he had taken refuge at Doctor Chartley's.

"Don't touch the drink!" he muttered. "He thinks I have had D.T. Well,
I did drink--brandy. I had some. Yes; I remember now--at the doctor's,
and--Great Heavens!"

He paused, with his hands pressed to his forehead; and now the light had
come back clearly.

He lay waiting till the nurse passed round again, and he signed to her
to come to his side.

"You have sent to my sister?"

"Yes; a messenger has been sent."

"My clothes?" he said, in an eager whisper. "Where are they?"

"They have been taken care of quite safely."

"And the bag, and the belt--the cash-belt I had strapped round my
waist?"

"I will make inquiries."

The nurse went away, and Mark Heath lay in an agony of spirit which he
could hardly control till her return, to announce that he had nothing
whatever upon him in the way of bag or money when found by the police.

Mark lay as if stunned till the messenger returned with the intelligence
that Miss Heath had left the lodgings indicated; that the people there
were new, and could give no information whatever.

"But you have other friends," said the nurse, as she looked down
pityingly in the patient's agitated face.

"Yes," he said, "I have friends. Write for me to--"

He paused for a few moments, with a hysterical sob rising to his lips as
he recalled how he had struggled to return to her wealthy, and had come
back a beggar.

"Yes, to--"

The gently-spoken inquiry roused him, and he went on. "To Miss
Richmond--"

"Richmond?" said the nurse, looking up inquiringly as she took down the
name in a little memorandum-book.

"Miss Richmond Chartley, 27 Ramillies Street, Queen's Square,
Bloomsbury, to beg her to find and send my sister here."

The nurse smiled, and left him to his thoughts, which now came freely
enough--too freely to help him to convalescence.

It was late in the evening when the nurse came to announce that there
were visitors; and after a few grave firm words, bidding him be calm,
she left him, and returned with Janet and Richmond, both trembling and
agitated, to grasp his hands, and fight hard against the desire to throw
themselves sobbing upon his breast.

The nurse remained, not from curiosity, but to watch over her patient,