"
"Shot!" she echoed, bursting into tears. "Then they have followed him,
after all! They have deceived me, and now, as they intend to take him
from me, I will myself protect him. You, Mr. Gregg, have been in peril
of your life, that I know, but Jack's enemies are yours, and they shall
not go unpunished. May I see him?"
"I fear not, but we will ask at the hospital." And after the exchange of
some further explanations, we took a hansom back to Charing Cross.
At first the sister refused to allow Muriel to see the patient, but she
implored so earnestly that at last she consented, and the distressed
girl in the black coat and hat crept on tiptoe to the bedside.
"He was conscious for a quarter of an hour or so," whispered the nurse
who sat there, "He asked after some lady named Muriel."
The girl at my side burst into low sobbing.
"Tell him," she said, "that Muriel is here--that she has seen him, and
is waiting for him to recover."
We were not allowed to linger there, and on leaving the hospital I took
her back again to Notting Hill, promising to keep her well informed of
Jack's condition.
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