CHAPTER VI.
THE GIRL ON THE BEACH.
I was not very well satisfied with our trip over the walls of San Marco.
In the first place, when the sea-beans, the rope and the grapnel were all considered, it was a little too costly.

In the second place, I was not sure that I had been carrying out my contract with Mr.Colbert in exactly the right spirit; for although he had said nothing about my duties, I knew that he expected me to take care of his son, and paid me for that.

And I felt pretty sure that helping a fellow climb up a knotted rope into an old fort by night was not the best way of taking care of him.

The third thing that troubled me in regard to this matter was the feeling I had that Rectus had led me into it; that he had been the leader and not I.Now, I did not intend that anything of that kind should happen again.

I did not come out on this expedition to follow Rectus around; indeed, it was to be quite the other way.