I hope to be in time to prevent his doing anything rash." "But how will you find him ?" "I must make a round of the hotels till I discover his head-quarters.
Good night." "Let me order my carriage to take you to the station." "A thousand thanks, but I shall be there before your carriage would be ready.

I can pick up a cab close by and shall have time to call at my lodgings for a carpet-bag.

Once more, good night." It was still dark when Gilbert Fenton arrived at Liverpool.

He threw himself upon a sofa in the waiting-room, where he had an hour or so of uncomfortable, unrefreshing sleep, and then roused himself and went out to begin his round of the hotels.
A surly fly-driver of unknown age and prodigious deafness carried him from house to house; first to all the principal places of entertainment, aristocratic, family, and commercial; then to more obscure taverns and boarding-houses, until the sun was high and the commerce of Liverpool in full swing; and at all these places Gilbert questioned night-porters, and chief waiters, and head chamber-maids, until his brain grew dizzy by mere repetition of his questions; but no positive tidings could he obtain of John Saltram.

There was a coffee-house near the quay where it seemed just possible that he had slept; but even here the description was of the vaguest, and the person described might just as well have been John Smith as John Saltram.