He was dressed very plainly, but there was nothing shabby in his appearance; and he thought he would inspect the interior of the hotel.
He began to mount the piazza, when he suddenly halted, and started back with astonishment, and his hair almost stood on end.

Directly in front of him, and not ten feet distant, sat his uncle, Homer Passford, of Glenfield, talking with a gentleman in uniform.

The lantern that hung near him enabled him to see the features of the planter, but he could not see the face of the officer, with whom he was engaged in a very earnest conversation.
Christy's first impulse was to put a long distance between himself and his uncle, for his father's brother might identify him in spite of the color on his face.

Such a discovery was likely to prove very annoying to him, and might render useless the information the detective and himself had obtained with so much trouble and risk.

But the first question that came into his head was the inquiry as to what his uncle was doing in Bermuda.