getting sick with alarm
about his friend. These instances of the blood-stained clothes, the
possible journey to Liverpool, and the flight of the mysterious lady,
were so suspicious, taken in conjunction with each other, that Max found
it impossible to rest until he knew more. He walked a little way along
the pavement, and then returned slowly in the middle of the road. He had
done this for the third time when Dudley dashed out of the house with
rapid steps, and had reached the step of the hansom before he discovered
that the vehicle was empty.

An exclamation of dismay escaped his lips, and to the cabman's statement
of the lady's disappearance he replied by asking sharply in which
direction she had gone. On receiving the information he wanted, he gave
the man his fare, and walked rapidly away in the direction the cabman
had indicated.

Max followed.

Every moment increased his belief that some appalling circumstance had
occurred by which Dudley's mind had for the time lost its balance. Every
word, look and movement on the part of his friend betrayed the fact. Now
he was evidently setting off in feverish haste in pursuit of this woman
whom he had left in the cab; and Max, who believed that his friend was
on the brink of an attack of the insanity which old Mr. Wedmore feared,
resolved to dog his footsteps, and not to let his friend go out of his
sight until the latter got safely back to his chambers.

Dudley went at a great pace into Holborn, and then he stopped. The
traffic had dwindled down to an occasional hansom and to a thin line of
foot-passengers on the pavements. He looked to right, to left, and then
he turned suddenly and came face to face with Max.

"Hello!" cried he. "Where are you going to? Where are you putting up?"

"At the Arundel," answered Max, taken aback, and stammering a little.

Dudley had recovered his usual tones.

"Come to my club," said he. "We can get some supper there and have that
pipe."

"But how about Liverpool and the friend you had to see off?" asked Max.

Dudley hesitated ever so slightly.

"Oh, he's given me the slip," he answered, in a tone which sounded
careless enough. "Gone off without waiting for me. So my conscience is
free on his score."

Max said nothing for a moment. Then he thought himself justified in
setting a trap for his friend.

"Who is he?" asked he. "Anybody I know?"

"No," replied Dudley. "A man I met in the country, who showed me a good
deal of kindne