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Alliance, Offensive and Defensive
"How did you come to do that?"
That was the first question Captain Hallam fired at Duncan after the hotel waiter had quitted the room to bring a further supply of coffee and broiled bacon.
"Why, it's simple enough," answered Duncan, with a touch of embarrassment in his tone. "You see, I was up there yesterday gauging coal. I knew the barges were anchored in a dangerous position, and so when the storm broke, there wasn't anything else to do but get into my clothes and send the tug up there to the rescue."
"But it wasn't your business to look after the coal up in the bend?"
Duncan slowly drank three sips of coffee before answering that eagerly questioning remark. Then he leant forward and said, slowly and with emphasis:
"I conceive it to be my business, and my duty as well as my pleasure, to do all that I can to promote the interest of the man who employs me."
"But that was a risky thing to do. You took your life in your hands, you know?"
"I suppose I did, but that's a small matter. There were twenty other lives in danger. And what is one man's life when there is a duty to be done? We've all got to die sometime."