But Dragen, perceiving that a quarrel at that juncture meant the failure of the whole adventure, kept his head and his temper. He let the "doctor" storm and rage without attempting a reply until the man's fury had spent itself in words.
Then he turned to Marlen and asked quietly: "And what are you going to do? Going through with me or back with the doc? You can have the car to run away in if you like."
"I'm going to see it through," was the reply.
"Then we must chance it and leave the car here. Good-night, doc. That's about the toughest speech you ever gave me, but I shan't take any notice of it. Maybe in the morning you'll see things differently."
He crossed the little landing-stage and came on to the launch.
"Can we do without him?" asked Marlen, rather nervously I thought.
"Of course we can. Oh, by the way, doc, you'd better let me have the drops," he said casually and went back to him. "I'm sorry I put your back up so, old man."
"Well, you should keep a better guard on that tongue of yours." The tone showed that his temper had passed.
"All right, we won't say any more about it. Give me the stuff."
The man laughed. "I'll go on with it if you like," he said half shamefacedly.