As foreign steamers would leave London at about the time of

high-water, our plan would be to get down the river by a previous

ebb-tide, and lie by in some quiet spot until we could pull off to

one. The time when one would be due where we lay, wherever that

might be, could be calculated pretty nearly, if we made inquiries

beforehand.

Herbert assented to all this, and we went out immediately after

breakfast to pursue our investigations. We found that a steamer for

Hamburg was likely to suit our purpose best, and we directed our

thoughts chiefly to that vessel. But we noted down what other

foreign steamers would leave London with the same tide, and we

satisfied ourselves that we knew the build and colour of each. We

then separated for a few hours; I, to get at once such passports as

were necessary; Herbert, to see Startop at his lodgings. We both

did what we had to do without any hindrance, and when we met again

at one o'clock reported it done. I, for my part, was prepared with

passports; Herbert had seen Startop, and he was more than ready to

join.

Those two should pull a pair of oars, we settled, and I would

steer; our charge would be sitter, and keep quiet; as speed was not

our object, we should make way enough. We arranged that Herbert

should not come home to dinner before going to Mill Pond Bank that

evening; that he should not go there at all, to-morrow evening,

Tuesday; that he should prepare Provis to come down to some Stairs

hard by the house, on Wednesday, when he saw us approach, and not

sooner; that all the arrangements with him should be concluded that

Monday night; and that he should be communicated with no more in

any way, until we took him on board.

These precautions well understood by both of us, I went home.

On opening the outer door of our chambers with my key, I found a

letter in the box, directed to me; a very dirty letter, though not

ill-written. It had been delivered by hand (of course since I left

home), and its contents were these:

"If you are not afraid to come to the old marshes to-night or

tomorrow night at Nine, and to come to the little sluice-house by

the limekiln, you had better come. If you want information

regarding your uncle Provis, you had much better come and tell no

one and lose no time. You must come alone. Bring this with you."

I had had load enough upon my mind before the receipt of this

strange letter. What to do now, I could not tell. And the worst

was, that I must decide quickly, or I should miss the afternoon

coach, which would take me down in time for to-night. To-morrow

night I could not think of going, for it would be too close upon

the time of the flight. And again, for anything I knew, the

proffered information might have some important bearing on the

flight itself.

If I had had ample time for consideration, I believe I should still

have gone. Having hardly any time for consideration - my watch

showing me that the coach started within half an hour - I resolved

to go. I should certainly not have gone, but for the reference to

my Uncle Provis; that, coming on Wemmick's letter and the morning's

busy preparation, turned the scale.

It is so difficult to become clearly possessed of the contents of

almost any letter, in a violent hurry, that I had to read this

mysterious epistle again, twice, before its injunction to me to be

secret got mechanically into my mind. Yielding to it in the same

mechanical kind of way, I left a note in pencil for Herbert,

telling him that as I should be so soon going away, I knew not for

how long, I had decided to hurry down and back, to ascertain for

myself how Miss Havisham was faring. I had then barely time to get

my great-coat, lock up the chambers, and make for the coach-office

by the short by-ways. If I had taken a hackney-chariot and gone by

the streets, I should have missed my aim; going as I did, I caught

the coach just as it came out of the yard.