The unfortunate Cripps, with a gasp, dropped his glass to the floor, and fled. But, before he had managed to wrench open the door, Harry had laid a strong hand on his shoulder, and was hauling him back again. “Let me go—let me go!” cried Cripps wildly. “I won’t be pestered with that devilish name any more. Let me go! I’ve found him in the river; he’s got the diamond necklace; he’s got the bank-notes; he’s frightened the Count and myself out of our senses; and I can’t have a quiet drink with a stranger, without hearing of him again. Let me go!” “Stop a bit,” said Harry quickly, with his carelessness and reckless demeanour gone—“stop a bit! What do you know of Dandy Chater?” “A great deal too much,” said the Doctor, shaking his head, and looking all about him. “What do you know about him?” “I was his servant,” replied Harry, casting down his eyes, and speaking in a low voice. “And I—I betrayed him, and handed him over to the police.” The little Doctor looked at Harry for some moments with great gravity, and then shook his head at him reproachfully. “My young friend—my dear young friend,”—he became quite melancholy over him—“it’s very evident to me that you are on the downward path—in the very devil’s clutches. You’ve been dreaming. Dandy Chater is as dead as Pharoah.” “God forbid!” exclaimed Harry, turning very white. “What do you mean?” “Dandy Chater was drowned—a week or two back—in that noble stream, the Thames.” Harry burst into a roar of laughter. “A week or two back,” he exclaimed. “You must be out of your mind! Why, he’s been down here within these past few days—has been in Chelmsford Jail, to stand his trial for murder; and is now at large about the country somewhere—God be good to him, wherever he is—with the police hunting high and low for him.” Cripps sat down suddenly on a bench. “Would you be so kind—so very kind, young man—as to call for a little drop of brandy—neat?” he said, in a shaky voice. “I’ve been persuading myself, for the last week, that I’d dreamed it all; and now I find that it’s all true.” Harry called for the brandy and Cripps swallowed it, murmuring to himself, over and over again as he set down the empty glass—“Dandy Chater in the river—Dandy Chater got the necklace—Dandy Chater in Chelmsford Jail—Dandy Chater running about the country, with the police after him. And Ogledon said that he——” He checked himself hurriedly there and got up. “You are a most estimable young man,” he said, addressing Harry—“and I would recommend you to drink as little as possible, and not to see more Dandy Chaters than you can help at once. Now, if you are going towards Bamberton, perhaps you’ll be good enough to put me on my road.”