‘It will be settled,’ I answered, ‘when those two formal documents are made out and signed.’
‘That can be done at once,’ he cried, with profound excitement working in every limb of him, and agitating his face into many singular twitchings and almost convulsive dilatations of the sockets of his eyes.
‘Give me leave to think a little,’ said I. ‘I will have a talk with Miss Temple and settle with her the terms of the absolving letter you are to write and sign.’
‘How long will it take ye?’ he asked with painful anxiety.
‘I shall hope to be ready for you before noon to-morrow,’ I replied.
‘All right,’ said he; ‘the moment it is settled I’ll change my course.’
I took his track-chart and opened it, and with a pair of compasses that lay on the table measured the distance betwixt the point at which we had arrived at noon and Rio. Roughly speaking, and allowing an average of a hundred and fifty miles a day to the barque, I computed that the run would occupy between ten and twelve days.
‘What are ye looking for?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘To see how far Rio is from us,’ I answered.
‘Well, and what d’ye make it?’