The Argosy — page 45: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a SR em —" —_—__- — 34 Roger Bevere. ‘He has. He left them last night. Ranaway from them, as one may say.” “Why he had only just got into them! Were the people sharks? I was with him on Wednesday night: he did not complain of any- thing then.” ‘ He must have left, I fancy, for some private reason of his own. Don’t you £zow where he is gone, Scott? You are generally in his confidence.” ) ‘Don’t know any more than the dead.” To dispute the declaration was not in my power. Scott seemed utterly surprised, and said he should go to Mrs. Long’s the first lei- sure moment he had, to see if any note or message had been left for him. But I had already put that question to the landlady, and she answered that neither note nor message of any kind had been left for anybody. So there we were, nonplussed, Scott standing with his hands in his pockets. Make the best of it we would, it revolved itself into nothing more than this: Bevere had vanished, leaving no clue. From thence I made my way to Mr. Pitt’s little surgery near Gibraltar Terrace. The doctor was alone in it, and stood compound- ing pills behind the counter. ‘¢ Bevere run away !” he exclaimed at my first words. ‘‘ Why, what's the meaning of that? J don’t know anything about it. I was going to see him this afternoon.” With my arms on the counter, my head bending towards him, I recounted to Pitt the particulars Mrs. Long had given me, and Scott’s denial of having any finger in the pie. The doctor gave his head a twist. : ‘‘Says he knows no more than the dead, does he! That may be the case; or it may wzof. Master Richard Scott’s assertions go for what they are worth with me where Bevere’s concerned: the two are as thick asthieves. I'll find him, if Ican.—What do you say ?—that Bevere would not conceal himself from me ?—Look here, Johnny Ludlow,” continued Pitt rapidly, bringing forward his face till it nearly touched mine, and dropping his voice to a low tone, “ that young man must have got into some dangerous trouble, and has to hide himself from the light of day.” | Leaving Pitt to make his patients’ physic, I went out into the world, not knowing whether to seek for Bevere in this quarter or in that. But, unless I found him, how could I carry out my promise of writing to Lady Bevere? I told Miss Deveen of my dilemma. She could not help me. Nobody could help, that I was able to see. There was nothing for it but to wait until the next week, when Bevere might perhaps make his appearance at the hospital. I dropped a note to Scott, asking him to let me know of it if he did. But of course the chances were that Bevere would not appear at the hospital: with need to keep his head en cachette, he would be no Gomicbooks.co