"I don't think I am in a position to give you advice, Amy. What did Mr. Logie say about the state of affairs, before he went away?"
"He seemed to think things were going on very badly. You know the soldiers rushed in here and assaulted him, one day last week. They said they had orders from the emperor to do so; and Mr. Logie said they certainly would not have dared to molest the British consul, if it hadn't been by the emperor's orders. He was talking to me about it, the day before they took him away to Sallee; and he said he would give anything, if he could get me away to the Rock, for that the position here was very precarious; and that the emperor might, at any moment, order all the English to be thrown into prison, and I know that the servants expect we shall all be killed, by the populace.
"They have frightened Mrs. Williams nearly out of her senses. I never saw such a foolish woman. She does nothing but cry. She is the wife, you know, of Captain Colomb's soldier servant.
"Well, what do you advise, Bob?"
"I am sure I don't know what to advise, Amy. This seems a regular fix, doesn't it?"
"But you are just as badly off as I am," she said. "If they seize everyone else, of course they will seize you, now you are here."
"Oh, I could get away, easily enough," Bob said. "I should dress myself up as a Spanish sailor. I have got the clothes here, and should boldly go on board one of the Spanish ships, and take passage across to any port they are going to; and then manage to work round into Gibraltar, again. But of course, you can't do that."
"I couldn't go as a Spanish sailor, of course," the girl said, "but I might dress up and go, somehow. Anything would be better than waiting here, and then being thrown into one of their dreadful prisons. They say they are awful places.
"Do take me, Bob Repton. I do so want to get back to father and mother again, and I am quite well and strong now--as well as ever I was."
Bob looked at the girl, with a puzzled expression of face. He had promised her mother to do the best thing he could for her. The question was, 'What was the best thing?' It certainly seemed that the position here was a very perilous one. If he left her here, and harm befell her, what would her parents say to him? But, on the other hand, how on earth was he to get her away?