“I will let you have the medicine in a minute or two,” I said to the coachman; and, as I let myself in with my latchkey, my mind came back swiftly from the general circumstances of the case to the very critical condition of the patient. Already I was regretting that I had not taken more energetic measures to rouse him and restore his flagging vitality; for it would be a terrible thing if he should take a turn for the worse and die before the coachman returned with the remedies. Spurred on by this alarming thought, I made up the medicines quickly and carried the hastily wrapped bottles out to the man, whom I found standing by the horse’s head.

“Get back as quickly as you can,” I said, “and tell Mr. Weiss to lose no time in giving the patient the draught in the small bottle. The directions are on the labels.”

The coachman took the packages from me without reply, climbed to his seat, touched the horse with his whip and drove off at a rapid pace towards Newington Butts.