“I shall be only too delighted to hear you prove us wrong,” replied Alan, his eyes brightening at the prospect, for he knew Alexis too well not to be sure that he would not have spoken in this way unless he had pretty solid reasons for doing so. “Say on, my friend; I am all attention.”
“Get out to sea, then, as fast as ever you can,” said Alexis, “for there’s not an hour to be lost if you adopt my plan, and if you don’t we can just come back.”
“Very well,” said Alan. “What’s the course?”
“Clear the islands and head away southward as hard as you can go,” replied Alexis briefly.
The excitement of the battle in which he had played such a terrible part had left Alan in just the frame of mind to listen to the project of a desperate adventure, such as he instinctively knew was now in his friend’s mind. Without hesitating further he went into the saloon, summoned the crew of the Narwhal, and said to them—
“Alexis and I have decided upon an enterprise which will end either in very great injury to our enemies or our own destruction. You have seen enough to-day to know that in the warfare we are engaged in there are only two choices: victory or destruction. We don’t want to take anyone against his will to what may be certain death. Those who care to go ashore may do so.”
Not a man moved. An athletic sailor named George Cosmo, who held the post of chief engineer, saluted, and said briefly—
“We shall all go, sir. What are the orders?”
“Get out of the harbour as fast as you can, and as soon as you are clear of the islands sink two fathoms, steer a straight course due south-east, and put her through the water as hard as she’ll go,” replied Alan.
Cosmo saluted again, and left the room with his comrades to execute the order.