"They are well. I bring you letters."
"Come up to my office and we'll give an hour to the news."
When they were seated before the grate fire in the large, pleasant room above stairs whose windows looked out upon the Square, the young man said:
"First I shall give you, sir, a letter from Major Washington. It was entrusted to a friend of mine who came on the same ship with me. He was arrested at Deal but, fortunately, the letter was in my pocket."
"Arrested? Why?"
"I think, sir, the charge was that he had helped to tar and feather a British subject."
"Feathers and tar are poor arguments," the Doctor remarked as he broke the seal of the letter.
It was a long letter and Franklin sat for near half an hour thoughtfully reading and rereading it. By and by he folded and put it into his pocket, saying as he did so: "An angry man can not even trust himself. I sent some letters to America on condition that they should be read by a committee of good men and treated in absolute confidence and returned to me. Certain members of that committee had so much gun powder in their hearts it took fire and their prudence and my reputation have been seriously damaged, I fear. The contents of those letters are now probably known to you."
"Are they the Hutchinson, Rogers and Oliver letters?"
"The same."