“It was, indeed; I couldn’t have felt any worse if I had lost my great-grandmother, who died fifty years before I was born. These honest fellows felt bad, too.”
“Of course they did.”
“We took the next train to Gottenburg; but when we arrived, the ship had sailed for Copenhagen, which I was more anxious to see than any other place in Northern Europe.”
“And for that reason you came on to Stockholm.”
“No, sir; you are too fast, Mr. Blaine. Your consequent does not agree with the antecedent. There was no steamer for Copenhagen for a couple of days.”
“There was a steamer within an hour after you reached Gottenburg in that train, and an hour before the sailing of the canal steamer; and Mr. Peaks went down in her,” said Mr. Blaine.
“We didn’t know it.”
“Certainly you did not.”
“We knew of no steamer till Monday, and we were afraid, if we went in her, that we should be too late to join the ship in Copenhagen; and with heroic self-denial, we abandoned our fondly-cherished hope of seeing the capital of Denmark, and hastened on to Stockholm, so as to be sure and not miss the ship again. These honest fellows,” said Scott, pointing to Sanford and his companions, “agreed with us that this was the only safe course to take.”
“I see that you struggled very violently to join your ship, and I only wonder that such superhuman efforts should have failed.”