"That his family are exceedingly distressed at his absence, and his wife, who, as you may know, is a lady of high family, dangerously ill; and he cannot be aware of the fact. This gentleman is the medical man of her family, and I--I am an intimate friend. We should esteem it therefore the very greatest service if you would give us any information which--" "Weep no more, gentle shepherds, weep no more; For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, Sunk though he be upon a garret floor, With fumes of Morpheus' crown about his head." "Fumes of Morpheus' crown?" asked Thurnall. "That crimson flower which crowns the sleepy god, And sweeps the soul aloft, though flesh may nod." "He has taken to opium!" said Thurnall to the bewildered Major. "What I should have expected." "God help him! we must save him out of that last lowest deep!" cried Campbell. "Where is he, sir?" "A vow! a vow! I have a vow in heaven! Why guide the hounds toward the trembling hare? Our Adonais hath drunk poison; Oh! What deaf and viperous murderer could crown Life's early cup with such a draught of woe?" "As I live, sir," cried Campbell, losing his self-possession in disgust at the fool; "you may rhyme your own nonsense as long as you will, but you shan't quote the Adonais about that fellow in my presence." Mr. Barker shook himself fiercely free of Campbell's arm, and faced round at him in a fighting attitude. Campbell stood eyeing him sternly, but at his wit's end. "Mr. Barker," said Tom blandly, "will you have another glass of brandy and water, or shall I call a policeman?" "Sir," sputtered he, speaking prose at last, "this gentleman has insulted me! He has called my poetry nonsense, and my friend a fellow. And blood shall not wipe out--what liquor may?" The hint was sufficient; but ere he had drained another glass, Mr. Barker was decidedly incapable of managing his affairs, much less theirs; and became withal exceedingly quarrelsome, returning angrily to the grievance of Briggs having been called a fellow; in spite of all their entreaties, he talked himself into a passion, and at last, to Campbell's extreme disgust, rushed out of the bar into the street. "This is too vexations! To have kept half-an-hour's company with such an animal, and then to have him escape me after all! A just punishment on me for pandering to his drunkenness." Tom made no answer, but went quietly to the door, and peeped out. "Pay for his liquor, Major, and follow. Keep a few yards behind me; there will be less chance of his recognising us than if he saw us both together." "Why, where do you think he's going?" "Not home, I can see. Ten to one that he will go raging off straight to Briggs, to put him on his guard against us. Just like a drunkard's cunning it would be. There, he has turned up that side street. Now follow me quick. Oh that he may only keep his legs!"