“Then, if you were me, you would give yourself the benefit of the doubt?” asked Barebone, with a rather reckless laugh. “For the sake of others—for the sake of France?”
“Not I,” replied Clubbe, bluntly.
“But it is practically impossible to go back now,” explained Loo. “It would be the ruin of all my friends, the downfall of France. In my position, what would you do?”
“I don’t understand your position,” replied Clubbe. “I don’t understand politics; I am only a seafaring man. But there is only one thing to do—the square thing.”
“But,” protested Dormer Colville’s pupil, “I cannot throw over my friends. I cannot abandon France now.”
“The square thing,” repeated the sailor, stubbornly. “The square thing; and damn your friends—damn France!”
He rose as he spoke, for they had both heard the customs officers come on board; and these functionaries were now bowing at the cabin-door.