The dragoman shrugged his shoulders.
“Well,” said the Colonel, “if only one of us is to escape, I think you fellows will agree with me that it ought to be Belmont, since he is the married man.”
“Yes, yes, let it be Monsieur Belmont,” cried Fardet.
“I think so also,” said Stephens.
But the Irishman would not hear of it.
“No, no, share and share alike,” he cried. “All sink or all swim, and the devil take the flincher.”
They wrangled among themselves until they became quite heated in this struggle of unselfishness. Some one had said that the Colonel should go because he was the oldest, and the Colonel was a very angry man.
“One would think I was an octogenarian,” he cried. “These remarks are quite uncalled for.”
“Well, then,” said Belmont, “let us all refuse to go.”
“But this is not very wise,” cried the Frenchman. “See, my friends! Here are the ladies being carried off alone. Surely it would be far better that one of us should be with them to advise them.”