“All went well till we were about three miles from Branchester; then an awful thing happened.  Our horse was a fast trotter, and Archie let him have his head, knowing that it would never do for us to miss the train.  As we turned a blind corner we came into collision with another dog-cart which we had neither seen nor heard.  The force of the impact was so great that our off-wheel was smashed; the cart went over, we were both flung out, and as I fell I realized horribly that my desperate expedient was a failure.

“I was not much hurt, for my fall was broken, and I soon scrambled to my feet.  But Archie lay there motionless.  The man who was the only occupant of the other dog-cart had pulled into the hedge and alighted.  He came up to offer his help, and to express his sorrow at the accident, which he said, doubtless with truth, was not his fault.  I dare say you will have guessed that the man was Clement Henshaw.  Between us we raised Archie and carried him to the side of the road.  He was quite insensible, and breathing heavily.

“‘I am afraid he is rather seriously hurt,’ the man said sympathetically.  ‘We ought to get him to Branchester Hospital as soon as possible.’

“I was so overwhelmed by the sudden and terrible end to our adventure that I could think of nothing.  By a great piece of luck a belated dray came along on its way to Branchester.  Into this, with the driver’s help, we lifted poor Archie; and then Henshaw and I drove on in his trap to prepare the hospital authorities for the patient’s arrival.  The doctor after a cursory examination gave very little hope, and I left the hospital in a most wretched state of mind, feeling more than indirectly responsible for the end of that bright young life.  Henshaw arranged for the horse and smashed dogcart to be fetched from the scene of the accident, and then he asked where in the town he should escort me.

“I thanked him and said, a good deal to his surprise, that I was not going to stop in Branchester, but would hire a fly and drive to my destination.  I stood, of course, in a hideously false position, and that he very soon began to divine; he would not hear of my getting a fly at that hour of the night, but insisted on driving me in his trap to wherever I wished to go.

“Unhappily I had no idea of the man’s character, or I should never have dreamt of accepting his offer; but I was then in no state of mind to judge his nature or question his motives; he had proved himself infinitely kind and resourceful, so in my lonely and agitated condition I consented, little imagining what the dire result to me would be.

“On the drive back to my home I was naturally in a horribly distressed state of mind, and hardly dared think of the future.  My companion tactfully refrained from much talking, although I had an idea that his curiosity was greatly excited to learn the explanation of the affair; he put occasionally a leading question which I always evaded, when he took the hint and did not press his inquiries.  So far as every one else was concerned there had been no idea of connecting me with poor Archie Jolliffe.  The hospital people believed that he had been driving alone, and that I had been in the trap with Henshaw.  I dare say they took me for his sister or his wife.