“I did not mean that,” said the Count hastily. “I meant brotherly help—the help that one devoted to research could give to another.”
“But,” said the doctor, laughing, “you have never confided to me what particular form of research yours is.”
“No, I have not,” said the Count hurriedly, “and I ask you to spare me from explanation. Be satisfied if I say that we are both bound upon great missions, and that you, a brother scientist, can give me enormous help by working in company with me for the next few weeks at most. Is this too much to ask of a learned doctor like you?”
“Oh no,” said Uncle Paul good-humouredly; “I do not see that it is. You are not going to ask me to help you to escape from an English prison.”
The Count gave an involuntary start.
“Of course not,” said the doctor, “for I am thankful that all that kind of trouble is at an end, and that France and England are at peace; and besides, you are free to come and go where you please. Well, as your son and my nephew have become such inseparable friends, and my time is my own, I will ask no questions, but sail where you sail, and pick up what I can to complete my specimens while you continue your research; and believe me, I wish you every success.”
“Ah,” said the Count, with a sigh of satisfaction; and with all a Frenchman’s effusiveness he laid his hands on the doctor’s shoulders and said, with some little show of emotion, “I thank you. You are making me as great a friend as my son is to your nephew.”
Watch was mounted on both vessels at night as if they were in the presence of a dangerous enemy; but there in the great solitude of that forest through which the river ran, there was nothing human to disturb the night.
Savage nature was as busy as ever during the dark hours through which the creatures of land and water fled for their lives or pursued their prey. Otherwise everything was wondrously still, and those upon schooner or brig who might have felt doubtful about the Spanish craft saw or heard nothing save the low murmur of voices in conversation and the occasional opening or shutting of a dull lantern, whose use was explained by the sudden glow cast upon the face of some swarthy sailor as he lit a fresh cigarette, after which a couple of faint points of glowing light rising and falling might have been seen passing to and fro upon the Spaniard’s deck.
Then as daylight came again there was the busy sound of the saw, chipping of the adze, the creak of auger, and the loud echoing rap of the mallet, as some tree-nail was driven home.