“Yes, my father is at home, and will be so all day. Of course you will walk in. I shall soon find him for you.”
We smiled, thanked the young lady, who by the way was very good-looking, and were soon seated in a large and prettily-furnished drawing-room.
In a few minutes Mr. H. himself came in, holding our cards in his hand.
“Glad to meet Britishers,” he said frankly; “for mind we Southerners can never forget that your country had a leaning towards us during the great Civil War.”
“That I can testify to,” I said, “for my own ship was what we sailors call chummy ship not only with the Alabama, but with the Georgia and Florida; and once I and another officer had the pleasure of sending the big Vanderbilt, a Yankee who was looking for the daring cruiser, on a wild-goose chase of over a thousand miles.”
“Bravo! Well, what can I do for you?”
“We are what they call scientists, or savants, on the other side of the ocean,” replied Reeves. “They say the best study of mankind is man. Perhaps; but at present we prefer them dead, and nothing except bones.”
“I begin to see,” said our host.
“On this beautiful island of yours,” Reeves continued, “many hundreds of years ago, a strange tribe of Indians lived. They were probably different from any now in existence. So, too, were their arms and implements different. Well, we have it on pretty correct information that hundreds of these were buried in certain mounds which we possess the means of locating, and that with them rest their arms and implements. We wish, if permitted, to do a little in the way of excavation. Can you assist us?”
“I do not think,” returned Mr. H., “that there can be any mounds of interest on the patch I own; but farther back is the property of my neighbours, and I am sure they will only be too pleased to permit you to excavate as much as you please.