“You don’t want to make me jealous, do you?”
“Don’t rot, Ralph. I’m in earnest.”
“The offer is just what I should expect from you, but I must see the thing through myself. If there is any risk, it must be mine.”
“I’d much rather——”
“No, Jack,” I interposed, shaking my head. His offer moved me deeply. It was just like his whole-hearted friendship to wish to take the risk, especially as he believed it to be much more serious than I did. Big or little, however, that risk must be mine. But his disappointment was both genuine and keen.
“I must go out now,” I said a moment later. “I have to see Dagara, and while I’m away, you’d better take Bryant down to the landing-stage and put him through his paces.”
He got up with a smile and a heave of his broad shoulders. “You’re an obstinate devil, Ralph,” he said: “and it would serve you right if I chucked the whole thing.”
“Look here. I’ll put it another way. If our positions were reversed, would you let me take the star part?”
“I don’t want any of your conundrums,” he grunted, and went off to call Bryant.
Acting on my resolve to avoid even remote risks, I took Simmons with me to M. Volheno’s bureau.