Captain Percival was now placed on the stretcher and carried out; Frank fell in with Signor Forli as he followed the party. “Unless you are going to tell him soon,” he said, “I must go; I cannot stand it, being so close to him.”
“I will tell him as soon as we are alone,” the professor said: “he has calmed down, and that glass of wine will do him a world of good.”
On arriving at the governor’s room, Captain Percival was placed in an easy chair, and the jailors left. Frank went to the window and looked out.
“I can hardly believe that it is not all a dream, Forli. The strangest part is that, while I had hoped to open your prison doors, you have opened mine.”
“You are wrong, Leonard: the same person who opened my doors has opened yours; as you set out to find me, so another set out to find us both.”
Captain Percival looked at him wonderingly.
“Of whom are you speaking, Forli? My head is not very clear at present. But who could have been looking for us both? You don’t mean Garibaldi?”
“No, no, Leonard; truly he has opened the doors to all prisoners, but he was not searching for any one in particular. When I tell you that Muriel sent out to Garibaldi the sum that you had put aside for that purpose, and that she and my wife had never altogether lost hope that you and I were both still alive, whom should she send out with it, and to search for you, but——”
“You don’t mean Frank? You cannot mean him: he is only a boy at school.”
“He is nearly seventeen now, and there are hundreds of younger lads who, like him, have done their duty as men. Yes, it is Frank. I would not tell you at first; one shock was enough at a time. Frank, my boy, you have your reward at last.”