"Really, you will make a convert of me."
"All in good time. We will get off first; let us start to-morrow, if not too soon for you."
"With all my heart. I love promptitude in action. But by land or water? And whither?"
"We will take the Great Slaughterton Railroad, in the first instance. That's imperative!"
"My dear sir, there was a fearful accident on that line only yesterday—a hundred and sixteen persons killed, besides loss of limbs, dislocations, contusions innumerable!"
"The very thing for us! A nine days' wonder! That line will be particularly careful for a whole week to come while the public eye is on it. We shall be quite safe, sir; but the earlier, the better. To-morrow, then?"
Assent was given, and I was booked for the Great Slaughterton. I was a little startled at my friend's precipitation, which seemed at variance with his usual deliberation; but he had given a reason for expedition on the route he had selected, and, on accompanying him home, I found that his preparations had been made. He showed me all the latest contrivances for comfortable travelling, in a variety of valises, portmanteaus, leather bags, satchels, baths, and a mahogany box which reminded me of a liquor case or cabinet of choice revolvers.
"You see I am all but ready," he said.
"Indeed you are," I replied. "But I shall overtake you, though I have not begun to pack; for I travel in a more primitive style. I leave behind me all I can do without, and trust to civilization to supply wants that may come upon me. A purse and the least possible encumbrances are what I look to. You are not, I suppose, going to burden yourself with that mahogany case, though I perceive it is labelled."
"My life-preserver, sir!"