" But how accurately all this fitted in
with what would naturally be the doctrines of the men on whose track I
was! I could no longer doubt the justness of my reasonings, and
immediately, while you slept, I set off for London.
'Of my haps in London I need not give you a very particular account.
The meeting was to be held on the 15th, and by the morning of the 13th
I had reached a place called Wargrave, on the Thames. There I hired a
light canoe, and thence proceeded down the river in a somewhat zig-zag
manner, narrowly examining the banks on either side, and keeping a
sharp out-look for some board, or sign, or house, that would seem to
betoken any sort of connection with the word "Aesopi." In this way I
passed a fruitless day, and having reached the shipping region, made
fast my craft, and in a spirit of _diablerie_ spent the night in a
common lodging-house, in the company of the most remarkable human
beings, characterised by an odour of alcohol, and a certain obtrusive
_bonne camaraderie_ which the prevailing fear of death could not
altogether repress. By dawn of the 14th I was on my journey again--on,
and ever on. Eagerly I longed for a sight of the word I sought: but I
had misjudged the men against whose cunning I had measured my own.
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