"The plunder!" I echoed.
He indicated the paragraph, and I read now another sentence which I had overlooked.
"The prince has expressed his intention, according to rumour, of marrying as he chooses, and as he inherits more than a million pounds from his mother, he is in a position to snap his fingers at the Empress. In that case, no doubt, he would follow precedent, and take rank as an ordinary subject."
I looked up at Holgate.
"We carry Cæsar and his fortune," he said with a smiling emphasis on the singular, and then he waved his arm melodramatically. "And to think we are all paupers!" and grinned at me.
"It is inequitable," said I lightly; "it's an unjust distribution of this world's goods," echoing therein his own remark earlier in the evening.
Pye sat still, with an inexpressive face. His admirable silence, however, now ceased.
"So we shall have this gossip all over the ship to-morrow."
"No," said I curtly, for the suggestion annoyed me. "It is nothing to me. I told you because you knew. And I told Mr. Holgate——" I paused.
"Because I'm your chum," said the third officer.