my news to him, and this fact, together with the ghostly proceedings of
Polton, worked me up to a state of nervous tension that rendered either
rest or thought equally impossible. I looked out of the window at the
lamp below, glaring redly through the fog, and then, opening the door,
went out on to the landing to listen.

At this moment Polton made a silent appearance on the stairs leading
from the laboratory, giving me quite a start; and I was about to retire
into the room when my ear caught the tinkle of a hansom approaching from
Paper Buildings.

The vehicle drew nearer, and at length stopped opposite the house, on
which Polton slid down the stairs with the agility of a harlequin. A few
moments later I heard his voice ascending from the hall--

"I do hope, sir, you're not much hurt?"

I ran down the stairs and met Thorndyke coming up slowly with his right
hand on Polton's shoulder. His clothes were muddy, his left arm was in a
sling, and a black handkerchief under his hat evidently concealed a
bandage.

"I am not really hurt at all," Thorndyke replied cheerily, "though very
disreputable to look at. Just came a cropper in the mud, Jervis," he
added, as he noted my dismayed expression. "Dinner and a clothes-brush
are what I chiefly need." Nevertheless, he looked very pale and shaken
when he came into the light on the landing, and he sank into his
easy-chair in the limp manner of a man either very weak or very
fatigued.