'I shall be in at eleven: don't go to bed,
for I want to see you for a minute or two.' Of course, there was nothing
in that, Mr. Purdie, and I waited for him. But he never came home--and no
message came. He never came home at all--and this morning I've telephoned
to his two clubs, and to one or two other places in the City--nobody's
seen or heard anything of him. And I can't think what's happened--it's all
so unlike his habits."
"He didn't tell you where he was going?" asked Purdie.
"No, sir, but he went on foot," answered the butler. "I let him out--he
turned up Paddington way."
"You didn't notice anything out of the common about him?" suggested
Purdie.
The butler hesitated for a moment.
"Well, sir," he said at last, "I did notice something. Come this way, Mr.
Purdie."
Turning away from the hall, he led Purdie through the library in which
Levendale had received Ayscough and his companions into a small room that
opened out of it.
Purdie, looking round him, found that he was standing in a laboratory,
furnished with chemical apparatus of the latest descriptions. Implements
and appliances were on all sides; there were rows of bottles on the
shelves; a library of technical books filled a large book-case; everything
in the place betokened the pursuit of a scientific investigator.
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