THE BRASS-BOUND CHEST The police-sergeant had got off his bicycle at the same time that I jumped from mine, and he was close behind me when Maisie and I met, and I heard him give a sharp whistle at her news.

And as for me, I was dumbfounded, for though I had seen well enough that Mr.Gilverthwaite was very ill when I left him, I was certainly a long way from thinking him like to die.

Indeed, I was so astonished that all I could do was to stand staring at Maisie in the grey light which was just coming between the midnight and the morning.

But the sergeant found his tongue more readily.
"I suppose he died in his bed, miss ?" he asked softly.

"Mr.Hugh here said he was ill; it would be a turn for the worse, no doubt, after Mr.
Hugh left him ?" "He died suddenly just after eleven o'clock," answered Maisie; "and your mother sought you at Mr.Lindsey's office, Hugh, and when she found you weren't there, she came down to our house, and I had to tell her that you'd come out this way on an errand for Mr.Gilverthwaite.And I told her, too, what I wasn't so sure of myself, that there'd no harm come to you of it, and that you'd be back soon after twelve, and I went down to your house and waited with her; and when you didn't come, and didn't come, why, I got Tom here to get our bicycles out and we came to seek you.