He waited until midnight. Mrs. Henderson had not come down-stairs to dinner, nor during the whole evening. She had sent a message to her son that she had a cold, and was unable to appear. Henderson, therefore, had only his own miserable company. And to sustain his courage he kept drinking glass after glass of whisky, and by twelve o'clock had certainly had more than enough. When the clock pointed to this hour he rose, and quietly as possible stole upstairs for the purpose of bringing down the coat that he intended to conceal. He unlocked the drawer in the wardrobe where he knew he had placed it, and started back with sudden astonishment and dismay, to find it was gone! He absolutely shook with fear. Where and how had it disappeared? He turned everything over in the drawer twenty times with trembling hands, but did so, as he knew, in vain. He never thought of his mother about the matter for a moment. Either it had been taken as evidence against him, or--and his guilty soul shivered within him at the idea--some supernatural agency had been at work, and the restless spirit of the dead Elsie had carried away the blood-stained garment. This thought filled him with absolute horror. He glanced furtively at the dark corners of the room; he fancied that unseen things were near, and at last, unable to endure the strain any longer, he once more hurried down-stairs, and spent the night as best he could on the dining-room couch, after first stupefying himself with whisky. In the morning he felt in a wretched state alike of mind and body. The inquest on the unfortunate Elsie Wray was to be held at eleven o'clock at the Wayside Inn, and thither Henderson knew he must go. He had to face this ordeal, however ill he was prepared for it, and Jack Reid, the groom, drove him over in the dog-cart at the appointed hour. Henderson was conscious that the people who met him in the country lanes glanced at him with suspicious and lowering looks. His connection with the unhappy Elsie had been whispered about, and many were ready to take the blackest view of the case. Jack Reid did not fail to impress on his young master during this drive that he must give his evidence with the greatest caution; telling him again and again that it was useless to deny sending the letters that lured Elsie to her untimely end. They agreed between them, in fact, what each had to say, and with this understanding they at length arrived at the Wayside Inn.