"We shall just do it
if we go at once," said he. "Good-bye," he added, shaking Thorndyke's
hand and mine. "You have been very patient, and I have been rather
prosy, I am afraid. Come along, Mr. Brodribb."
Thorndyke and I followed them out on to the landing, and I heard my
colleague say to the solicitor in a low tone, but very earnestly: "Get
him away from that house, Brodribb, and don't let him out of your sight
for a moment."
I did not catch the solicitor's reply, if he made any, but when we were
back in our room I noticed that Thorndyke was more agitated than I had
ever seen him.
"I ought not to have let them go," he exclaimed. "Confound me! If I had
had a grain of wit, I should have made them lose their train."
He lit his pipe and fell to pacing the room with long strides, his eyes
bent on the floor with an expression sternly reflective. At last,
finding him hopelessly taciturn, I knocked out my pipe and went to bed.
* * * * *
As I was dressing on the following morning, Thorndyke entered my room.
His face was grave even to sternness, and he held a telegram in his
hand.
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