"Ah, at last! I was beginning to think something
must have happened to you!"
"I thought it safer not to write, and I couldn't
get back sooner."
"You have just arrived?"
"Yes; I am straight from the diligence; I
looked in to tell you that the affair is all settled."
"Do you mean that Bailey has really consented
to help?"
"More than to help; he has undertaken the
whole thing,--packing, transports,--everything.
The rifles will be hidden in bales of merchandise
and will come straight through from England.
His partner, Williams, who is a great friend of his,
has consented to see the transport off from Southampton,
and Bailey will slip it through the
custom house at Leghorn. That is why I have
been such a long time; Williams was just starting
for Southampton, and I went with him as far as
Genoa."
"To talk over details on the way?"
"Yes, as long as I wasn't too sea-sick to talk
about anything."
"Are you a bad sailor?" she asked quickly, remembering
how Arthur had suffered from sea-sickness one day when her
father had taken them both for a pleasure-trip.
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