I did not argue the matter, feeling safe in his hands. The fog bank continued for some minutes, and when we suddenly ran out of it, imagine my astonishment to find ourselves hovering directly over a large city, with the sea beyond.
X.
Torrence jumped up in consternation, and looking overboard, exclaimed with an oath that he thought we were at least five miles to the southwest of that town.
"And what difference does it make?" I inquired.
"Look for yourself!" he cried; "they are expecting us. I feared our course would be telegraphed to all sea ports; but they shan't track me out of the country," he added, looking aloft significantly, "that is, not if I can help it."
"I should say we had decidedly the whip handle of them!" I replied.
"So we have. Of course they can't stop us, but I think it will be just as well to give them a false scent for their trouble. It may be interesting to use a little strategy with these people, Gurt, although we are undoubtedly masters of the situation."
Looking down I saw that the streets were crowded with people gazing up at us; and around the Wilberforce monument, on both sides of the bridge, it looked as if a mob had gathered to intercept our progress. In the open square, probably not less than a hundred soldiers had been assembled under arms, and had a very threatening aspect.
"Surely they won't fire on us!" I exclaimed.
"Not a bit of danger, they wouldn't dare; and if they did, they couldn't hurt us. No, the red coats are only for show; but if they got ugly, we could clean out the crowd by simply dropping a lot of cartridges overboard, without taking our guns out of the racks."