He evidently thought that he had brought as much news as one man could be expected to carry.
"Marie has heard," he said, "that there is much fighting up in the country." "She has heard no particulars--nothing more than that ?" "No: nothing." Jocelyn Gordon rose to this occasion also.
"Can you go," she said, after a moment's thought, "to St.Paul de Loanda for me ?" The man laughed.
"Yes," he answered simply.
"At once--now ?" "Oh, yes," with a sigh.
Already Jocelyn was writing something on a sheet of paper.
"Take this," she said, "to the telegraph office at St.Paul de Loanda, and send it off at once.

Here is money.

You understand?
I will pay you when you bring back the receipt.

If you have been very quick, I will pay you well." That same evening a second messenger started northward after Maurice Gordon with a letter telling him to come back at once to Loango..