CHAPTER III.
The boat did not start until three o’clock in the afternoon. Those of my companions who intended to cross the Caspian hurried off to the harbor; it being necessary to engage a cabin, or to mark one’s place in the steamer’s saloon.
Ephrinell precipitately left me with these words:
“I have not an instant to lose. I must see about the transport of my baggage.”
“Have you much?”
“Forty-two cases.”
“Forty-two cases!” I exclaimed.
“And I am sorry I have not double as many. Allow me—”
If he had had a voyage of eight days, instead of one of twenty-four hours, and had to cross the Atlantic instead of the Caspian, he could not have been in a greater hurry.
As you may imagine, the Yankee did not for a moment think of offering his hand to assist our companion in descending from th
