"Capital! capital! dear Edward," said Lady Helena. "If those poor
creatures ever see their native land again, it is you they will have
to thank for it."

"And they will see it again," returned Lord Glenarvan; "the statement
is too explicit, and clear, and certain for England to hesitate
about going to the aid of her three sons cast away on a desert coast.
What she has done for Franklin and so many others, she will do to-day
for these poor shipwrecked fellows of the BRITANNIA."

"Most likely the unfortunate men have families who mourn their loss.
Perhaps this ill-fated Captain Grant had a wife and children,"
suggested Lady Helena.

"Very true, my dear, and I'll not forget to let them know that there
is still hope. But now, friends, we had better go up on deck,
as the boat must be getting near the harbor."

A carriage and post-horses waited there, in readiness
to convey Lady Helena and Major McNabbs to Malcolm Castle,
and Lord Glenarvan bade adieu to his young wife, and jumped
into the express train for Glasgow.

But before starting he confided an important missive to a
swifter agent than himself, and a few minutes afterward it
flashed along the electric wire to London, to appear next day
in the _Times and Morning Chronicle_ in the following words:
"For information respecting the fate of the three-mast
vessel BRITANNIA, of Glasgow, Captain Grant, apply to
Lord Glenarvan, Malcolm Castle, Luss, Dumbartonshire, Scotland."