“It would be hard to do so without exciting suspicion.”
“In England you think it would be possible to procure such?”
“Without the least difficulty, in Dover,” Conyngham replied. “That would be my plan,” he added, “and if once we could get her, say to such a port as Dunkirk, I would find the men easily to man her.”
Dr. Franklin arose and began slowly pacing to and fro.
“What do you think would be the best plan to set about the purchase of such a craft?” he asked at last. “Do you think that you could accomplish it yourself?”
“It would be better for some one else to try,” Conyngham replied, “for I am known to many in the English ports. In fact, I might say without boasting that I am a good pilot in both channels. If she were secured by a man who might pass himself off easily as an English merchant it could be done without attracting suspicion, and she might be brought over with a French crew to Dunkirk.”
After more talk, in which Captain Conyngham detailed his plans as to armament and outfitting, he came to the subject which hitherto neither had touched upon.
“Of course, Dr. Franklin,” he said, “no one realizes more than I do the danger of such an enterprise, and mark you, sir, it does not appal me, yet I might state that if I were captured, not only I, but the men with me, should meet with short shrift at the hands of the British. We should have few opportunities, after such an event, to serve our country again.”
Franklin paused and smiled. “We shall attend to that,” he said, turning to a large cabinet and unlocking one of the ponderous doors. “And now I shall have to call upon your discretion. There are a great many things nowadays that we have to keep secret even from our friends, but I have here the very instrument that we need in our business.”
As he spoke he drew forth from a large portfolio a printed form and laid it on the table.