"A good many," I
replied; "there always are at Easter." "Can you tell me anything of
any of them?" he asked. "Not a word," said I, for I knew no one;
"but our consul can." And then we bowed to each other and he passed
on.
I got off my horse and scrambled down on foot after Smith. I found
him gathering berries and bushes as though his very soul were mad
with botany; but as I had seen nothing of this in him before, I
asked what strange freak had taken him.
"You were talking to that old man," he said.
"Well, yes, I was."
"That is the relation of whom I have spoken to you."
"The d- he is!"
"And I would avoid him, if it be possible."
I then learned that the old gentleman was his uncle. He had no
living father or mother, and he now supposed that his relative was
going to Jerusalem in quest of him. "If so," said I, "you will
undoubtedly give him leg bail, unless the Austrian boat is more than
ordinarily late. It is as much as we shall do to catch it, and you
may be half over Africa, or far gone on your way to India, before he
can be on your track again."
"I will tell you all about it at Alexandria," he replied; and then
he scrambled up again with his horse, and we went on.
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