"If you won't take spirits, Mr. Basil," said he, "you must have a glass
of negus. I couldn't let you go out without something warm--particular
after the excitement you've gone through. Why, bless you, sir, when they
ran out and told me, I shook like a leaf--and I don't look like a very
nervous subject, do I? And so sudden as it was, too, poor little
gentleman!"

"Very sudden, indeed," I replied, mechanically.

"Does Doctor Arbuthnot think he'll get the better of it, Mr. Basil?"

"I fear he has little hope."

Mr. Cobbe sighed, and shook his head, and smoked in silence.

"To be struck down just when he was playing such tricks as them
conjuring dodges, do seem uncommon awful," said he, after a time. "What
was he after at the minute?--making a pudding, wasn't he, in some
gentleman's hat?"

I uttered a sudden ejaculation, and set down my glass of negus untasted.
Till that moment I had not once thought of my watch.

"Oh, Mr. Cobbe!" I cried, "he was pounding my watch in the mortar!"

"_Your_ watch, Mr. Basil?"

"Yes, mine--and I have not seen it since. What can have become of it?
What shall I do?"