Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/443

, so it is quite in keeping that you should begin a new departure in life with it."

Sam rose, sought for paper, and with pencil wrote as follows:—

"From Mr. E. Wright, London, to Miss Letta Langley,Hotel, Oban.—I can stand it no longer. May I come to see you?"

Presenting this to his friend, Sam said, "May I despatch it?"

Robin nodded, smiled, and looked foolish.

An hour later Mrs. Langley, sitting beside her daughter, took up a pen, and wrote as follows:—

"From Miss Letta Langley, Oban, to E. Wright, London.—Yes."

Presenting this to her daughter, she said, "May I send it?"

Letta once more covered her face with her hands, and blushed.

Thus it came to pass that our hero's fate in life, as well as his career, was decided by the electric telegraph.

But the best of it was that Robin did go to India after all—as if to do despite to his friends, who had said he must not go. Moreover, he took Letta with him, and he hunted many a day through the jungles of that land in company with his friend Redpath, and his henchman Flinn. And, long afterwards, he returned to England, a sturdy