"Why no, sir; he didn't say. The cab might have taken him to one of the railway-stations, for all I can tell. I did not ask questions. Of course it is not pleasant for a lodger to leave you in that sudden manner, before he has well been three days in the house," added Mrs. Long, feelingly, "especially with the neighbours staring out on all sides, and I might have asked him for another week's rent in lieu of proper notice; but I couldn't be hard with a well-mannered, pleasant young gentleman like Mr. Bevere--and with his connections, too. I'm sure when her ladyship came here to fix on the rooms, she was that kind and affable with me I shall never forget it--and talked to me so lovingly about him--and put half-a-crown into Sarah's hand when she left! No, sir, I couldn't be hard upon young Mr. Bevere." Mrs. Long had told all she knew, and I wished her good-day. Where to now? I deliberated, as I stood on the doorstep. This sudden flight looked as though Roger wanted to avoid people. If any one was in the secret of it, it would be Richard Scott, I thought; and I turned my steps to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. I suppose I interrupted Scott at some critical performance, for he came to me with his coat-cuffs turned up and no wristbands on. "Glad to see you, I'm sure," cried he; "thought it might be an out-patient. Bevere?--oh, do you want him?" he ran on, not giving himself time to understand me perfectly, or pretending at it. "Bevere is at his new lodgings near Russell Square. He will not be back here until next week." "But he is not at his new lodgings," I said. "He has left them." "Left!" cried Scott, staring. "Left for good, bag and baggage. Gone altogether." "Gone where?" asked Scott. "That's what I have come to ask you. I expect you know." Scott's face presented a puzzle. I wondered whether he was as innocent as he looked. "Let us understand one another," said he. "Do you tell me that Bevere has left his _new_ lodgings?" "He has. He left them last night. Ran away 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 anything then." "He must have left, I fancy, for some private reason of his own. Don't you _know_ 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 leisure 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 resolved itself into nothing more than this: Bevere had vanished, leaving no clue.