“I have ever found your gentleman American a truly kind and hospitable sort of a fellow, and always willing to help a Britisher if he had it in his power. Well, now, I’m really afraid that a white lie or two will have to be exploited over this business; so I thought of casting anchor in the bay, and representing ourselves to be a party of enthusiastic scientists and geologists, engaged in anthropological and other studies, and so beg leave to open mounds here and there to unearth bones, pottery, and ancient armour.—Miguel, you will have to mount a pair of spectacles, and try to look wiser than ever you did before in your life.”
“That won’t be difficult,” said Miguel, laughing.
“I think,” said I, “that your plan is feasible enough.”
“Well, then, we shall consider it carried without a dissentient voice.—And now, Gordon, I depend upon you to charter for us a nice little steam-yacht. You are a doctor of science, at all events, and can talk science. I have studied a good deal, and Miguel, here, is also a student, so that our white lie will not be difficult, I think, to play up to.”
* * * * *
I lost no time in going south to Glasgow, and was soon fortunate enough to fall in with the very thing I required.
I wrote to my friends, with the result that they were soon with me in my hotel, bag and baggage, and by this time everything was ready. In a day or two we cleared away from the Broomielaw, dropped down the wide, romantic river, and next morning saw us not only safely round the stormy Mull of Cantyre, but standing well out to sea, skirting the northern shores of Ireland.
Though it was late in the year, the weather was clear and fine. Whenever a fair wind blew, we went ripping along before it; at other times we were under steam.
I confess that I for one felt somewhat anxious as we began to near the coast of Florida.
How would it all end, I wondered.