Page:Magician 1908.djvu/242

 neck between them, and see his face turn livid and purple as he died.

“I am going to this fool of a doctor, and then I shall go to Skene.”

“You must let us come with you,” said Susie.

“You need not be frightened,” he answered. “I shall not take any steps of my own till I find the law is powerless.”

“I want to come with you all the same.”

“As you like.”

Susie went out and ordered a trap to be got ready. But since Arthur would not wait, she arranged that it should be sent for them to the doctor’s door. They went there at once, on foot.

Dr. Richardson was a little man of five-and-fifty, with a fair beard that was now nearly white, and prominent blue eyes. He spoke with a broad Staffordshire accent. There was in him something of the farmer, something of the well-to-do tradesman, and at the first glance his intelligence did not impress one.

Arthur was shewn with his two friends into the consulting-room, and after a short interval the doctor came in. He was dressed in flannels and had an old-fashioned racket in his hand.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, but Mrs. Richardson has got a few lady-friends to tea, and I was just in the middle of a set.”

His effusiveness jarred upon Arthur, whose manner by contrast became more than usually abrupt.

“I have just learnt of the death of Mrs. Haddo. I was her guardian and her oldest friend. I came to