For three days and nights the vessel beat about in the Irish Channel, unable to make any way--three days were thus lost to their voyage--and when were they to arrive? Impatient--almost terrified by the delay which attended his endeavours, Neville, began to despair of success. On the fourth night the gale rose to a hurricane--there was no choice but to run before it--by noon the following day the captain thought himself very lucky to make the harbour of Liverpool; and though the gale had much abated, and the wind had veered into a more favourable quarter, it was necessary to run in to refit. With bitter feelings of disappointment, Neville disembarked; several days must elapse before the packet would be able to put to sea, so he abandoned the idea of going by her--and finding a New-York merchantman preparing to sail at an early hour the following morning, he resolved to take his passage on board. He hastened to the American coffee-house to see the captain, and make the necessary arrangements for his voyage. The captain had just left the tavern; but a waiter came up to Neville, and told him that the Mr. Hoskins, concerning whom he had before inquired, was in the house--in a private room. "Show me to him," said Neville, and followed the man as he went to announce him. Hoskins was not alone--he had a friend with him, and they were seated over their wine on each side of the fire. Neville could not help being struck with the confusion evinced by both as he entered. The person with Hoskins was a fair, light-haired, rather good-looking man, though past the prime of life--he had at once an expression of good-nature and cunning in his face, and, added to this, a timid, baffled look--which grew into something very like dismay when the waiter announced "Mr. Neville." "Good-morning, sir," said Hoskins; "I hear that you have been inquiring for me. I thought all our business was settled." "On your side, probably," replied Neville; "on mine I have reasons for wishing to see you. I have been seeking you in vain in London and here." "Yes, I know," said the other, "I went round by Ravenglass to take leave of the old woman before I crossed--and here I am, my passage taken, with not an hour to lose. I sail by the Owyhee, Captain Bateman." "Then we shall have time enough for all my inquiries," observed Neville. "I came here for the very purpose of arranging my passage with Captain Bateman." "You, sir! are you going to America? I thought that was all at an end.' "It is more necessary than ever. I must see Osborne--I must bring him over--his testimony is necessary to clear up the mystery that hangs over my mother's fate." "You are nearer hanging Mr. Falkner without him than with him," said Hoskins. "I would bring him over for the very purpose of saving a man whom I believe to be innocent of the crime he is charged with; for that purpose I go to America. I wish the truth to be established--I have no desire for revenge."