"What do you mean?" the Major asked, turning pale.
"I mean what I say, nothing else! Do you believe in hazard, Major?"
"Why—"
"No more, I fancy, in that which makes me meet you here, than in the chance that makes you find on a desert island diamonds worth three hundred thousand livres; because the one thing is as impossible as the other?"
This time the Major did not attempt to reply, for he felt he was caught out.
Michael continued in the same sneering and bantering tone—
"It is certainly ingenious to act as you do. A man soon grows rich by taking with both hands, but like all trades that are too good, this one is rather risky."
"You insult me, scoundrel!" the Major stammered. "Take care what you say. If I call—"
"Come, come," the sailor interrupted, with a coarse laugh; "I do not intend to notice the insult you cast in my teeth, for I have something else to do. As for calling out, just try it, and you will see what will happen."
"That—that is treachery!"