"Did you not see him, Surajah?"
"See who, Dick?"
"The white man you last served."
"I did not notice any white man."
"It was the one you gave a pound of the best tobacco to. Did you not hear me speak to him, afterwards?"
"No. I was so busy, and so fearfully hot with this padded thing, it was as much as I could do to attend to what they said to me. A white man, did you say? Oh, Dick!"
And as the idea struck him, he rose to his feet in his excitement.
"Do you think--do you really think he can be your father?"
"I do think so, Surajah. Of course, I did not recognise his face. Nine years must have changed him greatly, and he has a long beard. But he is about the right age, and, I should say, about the same figure; and he has certainly been a sailor, for he said, to one of the soldiers, that he would give that pound of tobacco for a couple of pipes of pigtail, which is the tobacco sailors smoke. I told him that, perhaps, I might be able to find him some in my packs, and asked him to come here at eight o'clock this evening. If I was not in, then, he was to come the first thing tomorrow morning; but of course I shall be in at eight. You must make some excuse to the ladies. Say that there are some goods you wish to show them, in one of the other packs, and ask me to go and look for it."
"Oh, Dick, only to think that, after all our searching, we seem to have come on him at last! It is almost too good to be true."