Caragh looked at them with no expression of interest, and Sir Anthony shook his head.
"You couldn't do it, my dear fellow," he protested; "you couldn't do it!"
"Perhaps not," said Maurice; "but I can have a try." Sir Anthony's hands and head shook in voluble negation.
"The captain wouldn't permit it for a moment," he asserted.
"Well," said Caragh, "of course the captain can refuse me the use of a line, but he can't, without being very unpleasant, prevent my going overboard."
There was an instant's pause, and then the group about the chair burst into simultaneous suggestion and advice.
Caragh was slapped on the shoulder; his previous performances in the water were demanded; encouragement and remonstrance were alternately tendered, and everything obvious on the situation was said.
"I'm not a professional performer," he explained at last, "but I can keep afloat as long as most men, and if I'm ready to take the risks of a swim, I don't think it should be any one's business to stop me."
This met a varied response, and with a general acclamation for the captain the speakers were moving forward when that officer appeared, looking for Sir Anthony, who at once put the case to him.
The captain, with a glance at Caragh still seated in his chair, dismissed the matter with a shrug of his shoulders. But he had miscalculated the passiveness of the man before him.