They drove towards the wharf.
"I'd give my head to change places with you," said Meredith.
"I wish you could."
There was so much pain and dejection in his look, that his friend could not fail to observe it.
"You don't want to go, then? I have noticed all along that you seemed devilish cool about it."
"Ned," said Morton, "I never used to think myself superstitious; but I begin now to change my mind. Heaven knows why, but I have strange notions running in my brain. My dog howled all last night; and not long ago, an owl yelled over my head, and that, too, at a time—— But you'll think I have lost my wits."
Meredith, in truth, was greatly amazed at this betrayal of a weakness of which, long and closely as he had known his companion, he had never suspected him.
"Why, colonel, I have seen you set out on a journey as long and fifty times as hazardous as this, as carelessly as if you were going to a dinner party."
"I know it; but times are changed with me. I am not quite the child, though, that you may suppose."
"If you have such a feeling about going, I would give it up. It's not too late."