"If you have a fortune there, why don't you go and get it?" she asked.

"We would, I trow, did we know we could have it for the going," he made
answer.

"And wherefore can you not?"

"St. Augustine is under the Spanish rule, and we know not that they will
permit an Englishman even to inherit property there. My grandfather was
a Spaniard and died possessed of valuable property."

"Can you not get it? Can you not get it?" she asked.

"I do not know."

"Try."

"We have thought to try it."

His brother was sent to Florida, but failed, though assured by the
lawyers that they might in time recover it.

There is no business so unprofitable as waiting for dead men's money.
Fortune flies at pursuit and smiles on the indifferent.

The prospects of John Stevens were certainly at a low ebb, and he found
his affairs daily growing worse. Large consignments of tobacco sent to
England remained unpaid for, and he stood in danger of losing all. He
thought of making a voyage to London for the purpose of looking after