“And he left this yesterday?” asked old Layton.
“Yes, sir. An Englishman came two days back with some startling news for him,—some say of a great fortune left him somewhere,—and he's off to England to make out his claim.”
Old Layton and his son stood speechless and disconcerted. These were the two travellers who had passed them at the log-hut, and thus had they spent some hours, without knowing it, in the company of him they had been travelling hundreds of miles to discover.
“And his friend knew us, and avoided us, Alfred,” said old Layton. “Mark that fact, boy, and observe that, where there is ground for fear in one heart, there is reason for hope in some other. We must follow them at once.”
CHAPTER XLVII. A HAPPY ACCIDENT
Having written a hurried letter to Quackinboss acquainting him with the causes which should prevent him from keeping his rendezvous at St. Louis, and informing him how he had met with his father, he briefly mentioned that they were about to return to New York with all speed, in the hope of coming up with Winthrop before he sailed for England. “Come what may,” he added, “we shall await you there. We long to meet you, and add your counsels to our own.” This letter he addressed to St Louis, and posted at once.
It was ten days after this they reached New York. Their journey had been delayed by a series of accidents,—a railroad smash at Detroit amongst the number; and when they arrived at the capital, it was to learn that the “Asia” had sailed that very morning for Liverpool, and at the agent's office they found that Mr. Harvey Winthrop was a passenger, and with him a certain Mr. Jacob Trover.
“Trover!” repeated Alfred, “he came out in the same ship with us, and it was in his company Quackinboss went down to the South, fully convinced that the man was the agent in some secret transaction.”
As he stood looking at the name on the agent's list with that unreasoning steadfastness that in a difficulty often attaches us to the incident which has first awakened us to a sense of embarrassment, he heard a well-remembered voice behind him exclaim, “What! sailed this mornin'? Well, darn me considerable, if that ain't takin' the ropes of us!” He turned, and it was Quackinboss. After the heartiest of greetings on both sides, Alfred presented his father to his friend.