Clare!
The philosopher's letter dispensed with all the ordinary forms of
address, and entered on the subject without prefatory phrases of any
kind, in these uncompromising terms:
"I have more news for you of that contemptible cur, my son. Here it is
in the fewest possible words.
"I always told you, if you remember, that Frank was a Sneak. The very
first trace recovered of him, after his running away from his employers
in China, presents him in that character. Where do you think he turns up
next? He turns up, hidden behind a couple of flour barrels, on board an
English vessel bound homeward from Hong-Kong to London.
"The name of the ship was the _Deliverance_, and the commander was one
Captain Kirke. Instead of acting like a sensible man, and throwing Frank
overboard, Captain Kirke was fool enough to listen to his story. He made
the most of his misfortunes, you may be sure. He was half starved; he
was an Englishman lost in a strange country, without a friend to help
him; his only chance of getting home was to sneak into the hold of an
English vessel--and he had sneaked in, accordingly, at Hong-Kong, two
days since. That was his story. Any other l out in Frank's situation
would have been rope's ended by any other captain.
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