India trip had been arranged. I had asked
him to write me at Jacksonville, but not to be alarmed if he did not
hear from me for some time, for I hardly knew where we were going. He
had been amazed at the contents of my letter. The clerk had confessed
all to him. I was entirely satisfied with the conclusion of the matter.
The rest of the letters were from my friends at the North.

CHAPTER XII.

SUGGESTIONS OF ANOTHER CONSPIRACY.

I felt like a beleaguered general who had just opened communication
with his reinforcements, when I again found myself holding intercourse,
even by letter, with my father. It seemed as though a new life had
begun for me. My father was happy, and so was I. He declared that he
should join me as soon as his business would allow him to leave
England; and that when he found me, as he should wherever I wandered,
he never would leave me again.

My father alluded at considerable length to "his best and truest
friend," Mr. Tiffany. He had written to him, and desired him to take an
interest in my affairs if he thought I needed any assistance, either
with money or counsel. This was a partial explanation of the conduct of
Mr. Tiffany; but he was a very strange man because he said nothing to
me about his instructions from my father.

Before I had finished reading the rest of my letters, Washburn came
into the room; but when he saw I was engaged, he began to retire. I
asked him to remain. He was my ever-faithful friend. He had fathomed
the conspiracy against me, and I valued his counsel more than that of
any other person. He had my fullest confidence, though he never sought
to know my business.

I related to him all the incidents of my visit to the city, including a
full account of my adventures with the Boomsbys and the other snake. I
need not say that he was intensely interested.

"That Boomsby ought to be hung!" he exclaimed, as soon as I had
finished my story.

"Perhaps not," I replied, giving the captain's explanation of the
presence of the snake in the closet.

"I should like to follow that lodger's history, if Captain Boomsby had
any such person in his house, which I do not believe," added the mate.
"When I go on shore I will try to find out whether or not he had any
lodger, and I think I can get at it."

"It is hardly worth the trouble," I replied.

"I think it is. For months we have been satisfied that this villain
means you harm; but we have never been able to prove anything,"