But the question of his health was a painful one to contemplate.

Could he, or could he not endure the strain that he had put upon himself within the last eight-and-forty hours?
In desperate straits men can do desperate things--there was always that fact to be remembered; but still John Saltram might break down under the burden he had taken upon himself; and when Gilbert went back to London that afternoon he was sorely anxious about this feeble traveller.
He found a letter from him at the lodgings in Wigmore-street; a hurried letter written at Liverpool the night before John Saltram's departure.

He had arrived there too late to get on board the _Oronoco_ that night, and had ascertained that the vessel was to leave at nine next morning.
"I shall take my passage in her in case of the worst," he wrote; "and if I cannot see Marian and persuade her to come on shore with me, I must go with her to New York.

Heaven knows what power her father may use against me in the brief opportunity I shall have for seeing her before the vessel starts; but he can't prevent my being their fellow-passenger, and once afloat it shall go hard with me if I cannot make my dear girl hear reason.

Do not be uneasy about my health, dear old friend; you see how well I am keeping up under all this strain upon body and mind.