invention? I see the way to have him under my thumb. Reason is an old

coat hanging on a peg; passion is the fool who puts it on and runs away

with it. Halloa! Who are you? And what do you want at such a time as

this? Surely you can see that I am not at leisure now. Why, Tugwell, I

thought that you were far away at sea!"

"So I was, sir; but she travels fast. I never would believe the old

London Trader could be driven through the water so. Sam Polwhele knows

how to pile it on a craft, as well as he do upon a man, sir. I won't

serve under him no more, nor Captain Charcoal either. I have done my

duty by you. Squire Carne, the same as you did by me, sir; and thanking

you for finding me work so long, my meaning is to go upon the search

to-morrow."

"What fools they must have been to let this fellow come ashore!" thought

Carne, while he failed to see the wisest way to take it. "Tugwell, you

cannot do this with any honour, after we have shown you all the secrets

of our enterprise. You know that what we do is of the very highest

honour, kind and humane and charitable, though strictly forbidden by a

most inhuman government. How would you like, if you were a prisoner in

France, to be debarred from all chance of getting any message from your

family, your wife, your sweetheart, or your children, from year's end

to year's end, and perhaps be dead for months without their knowing

anything about it?"

"Well, sir, I should think it very hard indeed; though, if I was dead,

I shouldn't know much more about it. But, without reproach to you, I

cannot make out altogether that our only business is to carry letters

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