"Eh—man!" says the governor, tapping the table with a document he pulled from his greatcoat pocket and shrugging his shoulders with a deprecating gesture of the hands, "if her crew feared sharks, they should have defended her against capture. Now—your prize must go back to New England and we lose the profit! Here," says he, "are orders from the king and M. Colbert that nothing be done to offend the subjects of King Charles of England——"
"Which means that Barillon, the French ambassador——?"
M. de la Barre laid his finger on his lips. "Walls have ears! If one king be willing to buy and another to sell himself and his country, loyal subjects have no comment, Radisson." [1]
"Loyal subjects!" sneers M. de Radisson.
"And that reminds me, M. Colbert orders Sieur Radisson to present himself in Paris and report on the state of the fur-trade to the king!"
"Ramsay," said M. Radisson to me, after Governor la Barre had gone, "this is some new gamestering!"
"Your court players are too deep for me, sir!"
"Pish!" says he impatiently, "plain as day—we must sail on the frigate for France, or they imprison us here—in Paris we shall be kept dangling by promises, hangers-on and do-nothings till the moneys are all used—then——"
"Then—sir?"
"Then, active men are dangerous men, and dangerous men may lie safe and quiet in the sponging-house!"