“I see, cousins,” said the governor. “Well cousin, my advice to you while you are in Natchez is that you go and make the acquaintance of the barber.” He put his hand into his pocket and brought out some silver pieces.
Jimmy drew back, flushing haughtily. “We have to get back to our ark,” he said. “We have left some very sick men up a bayou just below the place where we were shipwrecked. One of my errands was to learn from some doctor who knows the fevers how to take care of our sick.”
The bearing of the two older men changed at once. They asked questions of Jimmy and Lincoln, and as one question brought up another they eventually had the history of the voyage from the moment of Jimmy’s joining the crew, and Jimmy’s anger cooled.
“One thing I brought that I thought might be sent on its way if you knew who it was meant for,” he added, fishing in his pocket. “It’s a letter that the outlaws took from a despatch messenger that they killed. They thought it had something to say about money being sent by a brig from Marietta, and they had me read part of it. But when they found it was about militia, they were disappointed and let me keep the letter. Here it is.”
The outer addressed sheet was missing, but the rest, including the sheet which Jimmy had used for his message, was all there, and as it was growing dark the colonel unfolded a little pocket lantern, and putting it together, stuck a candle in it, and read the letter carefully. Then he handed it to the governor, who also read it. They looked at each other.
“I congratulate you,” said the colonel.
“Thank you. But the purchase may not go through.” The governor turned to Jimmy. “Have you read this letter, my son?”
“They made me;—most of it, but as I didn’t know who it was from nor who it was to, I didn’t learn much.”
“You didn’t recognize the signature of President Jefferson, nor my initials, with the dashes between them?”
“Indeed, sir, but I’d never happened to hear of you at all,” said Jimmy, candidly, “until the colonel here introduced you, and I could not make out the signature. Are you the one that’s to be picked out to receive the territory from Napoleon Bonaparte if the President buys it, as the letter says he’s offered to? Faith, I’d like to see that, sir. I’d like to be able to tell Uncle Amasa that one of our folks had a hand in such a thing as that. He’d be right proud to hear it.”