"Really?"
"Really."
"It is a bargain. Holloa! Pierre! Etienne!"
Two lads ran up from below.
"Run to the wine shops on the quay, fetch the crew. Just whisper in their ears. Say I am casting off, that no man must wait to say goodbye to his wife, and that each down in five minutes will have as many louis, and that in ten I sail, if with only half the crew. Run! Run!"
The two boys set off at full speed.
"I fear ten minutes will be impossible, Maitre Perrot; but all that can be done, shall. Is ten absolutely necessary?"
"Twenty may do, Maitre Nicolay; but if we are not off by that time, we shall not be able to go at all."
"You are pursued?"
"Yes. In half an hour at latest a troop of soldiers will be here after us."