secret.  Having thus paved the way, he came out with a distinct proposition at the next meeting.  “I feel a great deal of sympathy for Signor Papanti,” said he.  “I have been acquainted with him a good while, and have taken lessons of him, both in music and Italian; and I like the old gentleman.  He is getting ill in prison, and he can never tell you any more than he has told you.  Doubtless he knew that Madame intended to convey those girls to the North if she possibly could; but I confess I should have despised him if he had turned informer against the daughters of his friend, who had been his own favorite pupils.  If you will gratify me by releasing him, I will make you an offer for those girls, and take my chance of ever finding them.”

“What sum do you propose to offer?” inquired the creditors.

“I will pay one thousand dollars if you accede to my terms.”

“Say two thousand, and we will take the subject under consideration,” they replied.

“In that case I must increase my demands,” said he.  “I have reason to suspect that my friend the Signor would like to make a match with Madame Guirlande.  If you will allow her to come back to her business and remain undisturbed, and will make me a sale of these girls, I don’t care if I do say two thousand.”

“He has told you where they are!” exclaimed Mr. Bruteman, abruptly; “and let me tell you, if you know where they are, you are not acting the part of a gentleman.”

“He has not told me, I assure you, nor has he given me the slightest intimation.  It is my firm belief that he does not know.  But I am rather fond of gambling, and this is such a desperate throw, that it will be all the more exciting.  I never tried my luck at buying slaves running, and I have rather a fancy for experimenting in that game of chance.  And I confess my curiosity has been so excited by the wonderful accounts I have heard of those nonpareil girls, that I should find the pursuit of them a stimulating occupation.  If I should not succeed, I should at least have the satisfaction of having done a good turn to my old Italian friend.”

They asked more time to reflect upon it, and to hear from New York and Boston.  With inward maledictions on their slowness, he departed, resolving in his own mind that nothing should keep him much longer from Nassau, come what would.

As he went out, Mr. Chandler remarked:  “It’s very much like him.  He’s always ready to gamble in anything.”

“After all, I have my suspicion that he’s got a clew to the mystery somehow, and that he expects to find those handsome wenches,” said Mr. Bruteman.  “I’d give a good deal to baffle him.”

“It seems pretty certain that we cannot obtain any clew,” rejoined Mr. Ammidon, “and we have already expended considerable in the effort.  If he can be induced to offer two thousand five hundred, I think we had better accept it.”

After a week’s absence in Savannah and its vicinity, making various arrangements for the reception of the sisters, Mr. Fitzgerald returned to New Orleans, and took an early opportunity to inform the creditors that he should remain a very short time.  He made no allusion to his proposed bargain, and when they alluded to it he affected great indifference.