This was more like a question than an answer, and Brace replied sturdily—
“No, sir. I will sail under no flag except the British.
‘The flag that braved a thousand years
The battle and the breeze.’
But,” he added, half regretfully, “if you succeed in purchasing this good barque—and a better never sailed to the Sea of Ice—she will belong to you, and you can hoist your Stars and Stripes; only——”
“I understand,” said Ingomar, “and honour your sentiment. Well, you must be captain of the Walrus, that is clear. But everything else must be made clear, and I am certain we will not quarrel about the flag displayed.”
He considered a moment.
“Let us have the two in one,” he said. “Not one beneath the other, else we should quarrel worse than ever.”
He laughed at his own quaint notion, as he added—
“Why not have the two flags tacked together, so that their united ensign should show from one side the Bird of Freedom—the eagle, and on the other your British batch of Lions?”
It was Captain Brace’s turn to laugh now, and he did so right heartily.