"When can they leave?"
"Who knows? Not for some time, certainly. Expeditions are irregular."
"They should go at once," O'Reilly said, positively. "That's why we came to see you. Let us—Branch and me—take all three of them to the United States."
"You, too, El Demonio?" inquired the general.
"Yes, sir; if you please."
"But how? How can you take two women and a sick man—"
"We'll manage somehow," O'Reilly declared. "It isn't far across to the
Bahama Banks."
"True. That's the route of our underground—our undersea—railroad. As you probably know, there is a venturesome countryman of yours who carries our despatches by that way. He devised the scheme, to keep us in touch with our friends in New York, and he has done us great service. He comes and goes in a small boat, but how or when nobody knows. The Spanish patrols are on the lookout for him, and there's a price on his head, so you won't find it easy or safe to cross. Beware that you are not mistaken for him."
"Do you mean that we may go?" Branch eagerly inquired.
The general hesitated, whereupon O'Reilly spoke up: "For my part, I'll agree to come back if you so desire."