will show everything right in that department. We got an electric current
through till the moment of parting, so that electric connection was
perfect, and yet the farther we paid out the feebler were the currents,
indicating a difficulty which, however, I do not consider serious, while
it is of a nature to require attentive investigation."

"_Plymouth, August 17._ Here I am still held by the leg and lying in my
berth from which I have not moved for six days. I suffer but little pain
unless I attempt to sit up, and the healing process is going on most
favorably but slowly.... I have been here three days and have not yet had
a glimpse of the beautiful country that surrounds us, and if we should be
ordered to another port before I can be out I shall have as good an idea
of Plymouth as I should have at home looking at a map."

While the wounded leg healed slowly, the plans of the company moved more
deliberately still. A movement was on foot for the East India Company to
purchase what remained of the cable for use in the Red Sea or the Persian
Gulf, so that the Atlantic Company could start afresh with an entirely
new cable, and Morse hoped that this plan might be consummated at an
early date so that he could return to America in the Niagara; but the
negotiations halted from day to day and week to week. The burden of his
letters to his wife is always that a decision is promised by "to-morrow,"
and finally he says in desperation: "To-day was to-morrow yesterday, but
to-day has to-day another to-morrow, on which day, as usual, we are to
know something. But as to-day has not yet gone, I wait with some anxiety
to learn what it is to bring forth."

His letters are filled with affectionate longing to be at home again and
with loving messages to all his dear ones, and at last he is able to say
that his wound has completely healed, and that he has decided to leave