He waited for Chase to speak, and Chase was silent. He waited with a smile, knowing that Chase could not speak.
"There must be an alternative," Chase said, doubtfully, at last.
"Name it, then."
That was just what Chase could not do. He turned in his mind from this calling to that. There was not one which did not need a particular education; there was not one in which Stretton was likely to succeed. Soldiering or the sea. These were the two callings for which he was fitted. From the sea his age debarred him; from soldiering too, except in this one way. No, certainly, Stretton was not off his head.
"How in the world did you think of the Foreign Legion?" he asked.
Stretton shrugged his shoulders.
"I thought of most other courses first, and, one by one, rejected them as impossible. This plan came to me last of all, and only last night. We were passing a light-ship. In a way, you see, we were within sight of home. I was in despair; and suddenly the idea flashed upon me, like the revolving blaze from the light-ship. It is a sound one, I think. At all events, it is the only one."
"Yes," answered Chase, slowly; "I suppose there will be chances, for there's always something stirring on the Algerian frontier."
"There, or in Siam," said Stretton.
"What arrangements are you making here?"