CHAPTER VII.
A FRIEND IN NEED Some of Mr.Merrick's business friends in New York, hearing of his proposed trip, had given him letters of introduction to people in various European cities.

He had accepted them--quite a bunch, altogether--but had firmly resolved not to use them.

Neither he nor the nieces cared to make superficial acquaintances during their wanderings.
Yet Uncle John chanced to remember that one of these letters was to a certain Colonel Angeli of the Twelfth Italian Regiment, occupying the barracks on the Pizzofalcone hill at Naples.

This introduction, tendered by a relative of the Colonel's American wife, was now reposing in Mr.
Merrick's pocket, and he promptly decided to make use of it in order to obtain expert advice as to the wisdom of remaining in the stricken city.
Enquiring his way from the still dazed concierge, he found that the Pizzofalcone barracks were just behind the hotel but several hundred feet above it; so he turned up the Strada St.Lucia and soon came upon the narrow lane that wound upward to the fortifications.

It was a long and tedious climb in the semi-darkness caused by the steady fall of ashes, and at intervals the detonations from Vesuvius shook the huge rock and made its massive bulk seem insecure.