o, and he cast the light round to
seek for a chair, he caught sight of a vacant couch, a table with
bottle, glasses, and sugar thereon, and the cover drawn all on one side,
so that the glasses were within an ace of being off; and then, drawing
in his breath, he stepped to the other side of the table, and held down
the light, which fell upon a drawn and ghastly face, while, hidden by
the table-cover, there lay the figure of a well-dressed man.

"Fit," muttered the constable, bending lower. "No; I ain't a doctor,
but I know what that means."

He stepped back quickly, and shut the door after him.

"No, no! prop it open."

"Let it be, Miss," he replied sternly. "There's something else wrong
there."

The girl stared up at him aghast.

"Here's a sofy will do," he continued, pointing to a kind of settee,
cushioned, and with a common moreen valance hanging down, while a rough
kind of pillow was fastened to one end. "You get up, Miss, and lift a
bit. I won't hurt him more than I can help. That's it. Sorry, Miss, I
thought what I did."

A low moan escaped the sufferer as he was lifted with difficulty upon
the rough settee, and this being done, the constable renewed his
request.

"Now, Miss, it's a thing as wants doing at once. Call help."

"Hold up his head," was the quick imperious reply; and as the man
obeyed, he saw to his surprise the girl go quickly to the row of shelves
at one side of the room, take down a labelled bottle, remove the
stopper, and pour some of its contents into a graduated glass. To this
she added a portion of the contents of another bottle, taking them down,
replacing stoppers, and proceeding in the most matter-of-fact,
businesslike way, as if accustomed to the task, and returning to try and
trickle a little fluid between the patient's lip, supplementing it by
bathing his temples.

This done, she ran to a drawer, to return with a roll and scissors; then
getting sponge, water, and basin, and proceeding deftly to bathe and
strap up the bleeding wound, before turning to her assistant, who looked
dim, as the fog seemed to have filtered into the room. "Now," she said
sharply, "is there some one injured in that room?"

"Yes, Miss; but stop. I will have help now," said the constable
hoarsely. "You shan't go in there!"

At that moment, as the man stepped before the consulting-room door,
there was the quick rattle of a latch-key heard faintly from the
front-door, and as the opening door af