tly, falling back in his
chair.

"I was not proposing to start at a moment's notice," replied Plinny,
with extreme simplicity. "There will, of course, be many details to
arrange; and I do not forget that we are in the house of mourning.
The poor dear Major claims our first thoughts, naturally. Yes, yes;
there must be a hundred and one details to be discussed hereafter--at
a fitting time; and it may be many weeks before we find ourselves
actually launched--if I may use the expression--upon the bosom of the
deep."

"_We?_" gasped Mr. Rogers, and again gazed around; but we others had
no attention to spare for him. "_We?_ Who are 'we'?"

"Why, all of us, sir, if I might dare to propose it; or at least as
many as possible of us whom the hand of Providence has so
mysteriously brought together. I will confess that while you were
talking just now, discussing this secret which properly speaking
belongs to Harry alone, I doubted the prudence of it--"

"And, by Jingo, you were right!" put in Miss Belcher.

"With your leave, ma'am," Plinny went on, "I have come to think
otherwise. To begin with, but for Captain Branscome the map would
never have found its way to the Major's room, where Harry discovered
it; but might--nay, probably would--have been stolen by the wicked
man who committed this crime to get possession of it. Again, but for
Mr. Goodfellow this written narrative would undoubtedly have been
lost to us, and the map, if not meaningless, might have seemed a clue
not worth the risk of following. In short, ma'am"--Plinny turned
again to Miss Belcher--"I saw that each of us at this table had been
wonderfully brought here by the hand of Providence. And from this I
went on to see, and with wonder and thankfulness, that here was a
secret, sought after by many evildoers, which had yet come into the
keeping of six persons, all of them honest, and wishful only to do
good. Consider, ma'am, how unlikely this was, after the many bold,
bad hands that have reached out for it. And will you tell me that
here is accident only, and not the finger of Providence itself?
At first, indeed, we suspected Captain Branscome and Mr. Goodfellow:
they were strangers to us, and, as if that we might be tested, they
came to us under suspicion." Here Mr. Goodfellow put up a hand and
dubiously felt his nose, which was yet swollen somewhat from his
first encounter with Mr. Rogers. "But they have proved their
innocence; Harry gives me his w