The next morning they had heard reports in the town that caused them to institute inquiries.

A letter in the pocket of the coat, directed to Eric Hamilton, Gladwyn, Heathfield, enabled them to communicate with his relatives.

And they had lost no time in doing so.

I never saw Giles so terribly upset.
He looked as though he had received a blow.

He went to Brighton at once, and afterwards to London, and employed every means to set our fears at rest, for a horrible suspicion that he had really made away with himself was in all our minds.
'I was far too ill to notice all that went on.