ing. On the Saturday his friends communicated with the
police. On Sunday hand-bills were issued stating the fact of the
Doctor's disappearance, and on Monday, the 26th, a description and
the offer of a considerable reward for the discovery of his body were
circulated both in and out of the city. Two days later a further reward
was offered. But these efforts were fruitless. The only person who gave
any information beyond that afforded by those who had seen the Doctor in
the streets on the morning of his disappearance, was Professor Webster.
About four o'clock on the Sunday afternoon the Professor called at the
house of the Revd. Francis Parkman, the Doctor's brother. They were
intimate friends. Webster had for a time attended Parkman's chapel; and
Mr. Parkman had baptised the Professor's grand-daughter. On this Sunday
afternoon Mr. Parkman could not help remarking Webster's peculiar
manner. With a bare greeting and no expression of condolence with the
family's distress, his visitor entered abruptly and nervously on the
object of his errand. He had called, he said, to tell Mr. Parkman that
he had seen his brother at the Medical College on Friday afternoon, that
he had paid him L90 which he owed him, and that the Doctor had in the
course of their interview taken out a paper and dashed his pen
through it, presumably as an acknowledgment of the liquidation of the
Professor's debt. Having communicated this intelligence to the somewhat
astonished gentleman, Webster left him as abruptly as he had come.

Another relative of Dr. Parkman, his nephew, Mr. Parkman Blake, in the
course of inquiries as to his uncle's fate, thought it right to see
Webster. Accordingly he went to the college on Monday, the 26th, about
eleven o'clock in the morning. Though not one of his lecture days, the
janitor Littlefield informed him that the Professor was in his room. The
door of the lecture-room, however, was found to be locked, and it was
only after considerable delay that Mr. Blake gained admittance. As he
descended the steps to the floor of the lecture-room Webster, dressed in
a working suit of blue overalls and wearing on his head a smoking cap,
came in from the back door. Instead of advancing to greet his visitor,
he stood fixed to the spot, and waited, as if defensively, for Mr.
Blake to speak. In answer to Mr. Blake's questions Webster described
his interview with Dr. Parkman on the Friday afternoon. He gave a
very similar account of it to th