"No harm," said Job, coolly. "They're fine words, captain, but what do they mean? Give us your word as a gentleman that you won't split."
"I will do more," said the captain, slowly and with quiet deliberation. "I will join you."
The men looked at each other half incredulously.
Job alone remained, with his hand on his hip, calm and unmoved.
"You will join us?" he said. "On you honor?"
"As a gentleman," said Captain Howard Murpoint, with fine irony. "If you want to feel secure, show me how I can be a gainer by the enterprise, and you may feel perfectly certain that I shall remain faithful. If you mean to test me, you can do so at once."
"How?" asked Job.
"You say," returned the captain, "that a cargo waits running home. I'll help you to clear it. I shall have become an accomplice, a participator in the offense, and what peril you run I shall share in."
"True," said Job. "You're right, captain. You've got brains."
Job, instantly changing his manner from a calm to a half-excited eagerness, said: