“But I don’t want to fight.”
“Then go.”
“But there ain’t nowhere to go, and—Oh, I say, Mayne Gordon, what is a fellow to do?”
“Do what I do,” I said, quickly.
“What’s that?”
“Trust to Mr Gunson the same as we have done before.”
“Thank you, Mayne Gordon,” said Gunson, laying his hand on my shoulder; “but I hardly like exposing you to risk.”
“The danger has not come yet,” I said, smiling, though I confess to feeling uncomfortable. “Perhaps it never will.”
“At any rate we must be prepared,” said Gunson. “Only to think of it! What a little thing influences our careers! I little fancied when I protected that poor little fellow on board the steamer, that in so doing I was jeopardising my prospects just when I was about to make the success of my life.”
“It is unfortunate,” I said.