“You were in Berlin three months. Was it at the beginning or end of your stay?”
“At the beginning.”
“And you staid?”
“I had business which I could not leave.”
“Would you have been ruined if you had left?”
“Well, no—not exactly ruined, but it would have entailed serious consequences.”
“Would those consequences have been as serious as the Tecumseh tragedy?”
“My dear, in business there are rules which a man is not permitted to neglect. There are duties and obligations which are imperative. The code of honor there is as delicate, yet as rigid, as elsewhere.”
“And yet there are times when all obligations of this sort are weakened. When friends die, this is recognized. Why should it not be so when they are in danger of a fate worse than death?”
Thornton elevated his eyebrows, and made no reply.