At the gate he
met George Sheldon.
"What's up now?" asked the lawyer.
"Did you send your message?"
"Yes; I telegraphed to Phil."
"It has been trouble wasted. He has brought her home."
"What does that mean?"
"Who knows? I pray God that he may have overreached himself. I have set a
watch upon my dear love, and no further harm shall come to her. I am
going to fetch Dr. Jedd."
"And you are not afraid of Phil's smelling a rat?"
"I am afraid of nothing that he can do henceforward. If it is not too
late to save her, I will save her."
He waited for no more, but jumped into the cab. "London Bridge terminus!
You must get me there by a quarter to five," he said to the driver.
George Sheldon went no further than the gate of his brother's domain.
"I wonder whether the Harold's Hill people will send that telegram after
him," he thought. "It'll be rather unpleasant for Fred Orcott if they do.
But it's ten to one they won't. The normal condition of every seaside
lodging-house keeper in one degree removed from idiotcy."
Book the Ninth.
THROUGH THE FURNACE
CHAPTER I.
SOMETHING TOO MUCH.
"Is that young man mad?" asked Philip Sheldon, as he went into his study
immediately after Valentine had passed him in the hall.
The question was not addressed to any particular individual; and Diana,
who was standing near the door by which Mr.
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