“Well, I never saw such a chap for throwing cold water on any suggestion one makes!” exclaimed Eric in an indignant tone. He was almost angry.
“It is cold water this time with a vengeance,” retorted Fritz, laughing; whereupon Eric calmed down again, but only to argue the point more determinedly.
“Mind, I don’t want you to go, brother,” he pleaded. “I’m much the stronger of the two of us, although I am the youngest; so, I’ll try the feat. It will be easy enough after rounding the headland, which will be the hardest part of the job; but when I have weathered that, it will be comparatively easy to reach the seal-caves. Once arrived there, I shall only have to climb up to the plateau and shoot some pigs and a goat and fling them down to you here, returning at my leisure; for, there’ll be no hurry. As for the swim back, it will not be half so difficult a task as getting round there, for the wind and tide will both be in my favour.”
But, Fritz would not hear of this for a moment.
“No,” he said; “if anybody attempts the thing, it must be me, my impulsive laddie! Do you think I could remain here quietly while you were risking your life to get food for us both?”
“And how do you expect me to do so either?” was the prompt rejoinder.
“I am the eldest, and ought to decide.”
“Ah, we are brothers in misfortune now, as well as in reality; so the accident of birth shall not permit you to assert a right of self-sacrifice over me!” cried Eric, using almost glowing language in his zealous wish to secure his brother’s safety at the expense of his own.
“What fine words, laddie!” said Fritz, laughing again at the other’s earnestness, as if to make light of it, although he well recognised the affection that called forth Eric’s eloquence. “Why, you are speaking in as grand periods as little Burgher Jans!”
Eric laughed, too, at this; but, still, he was not going to be defeated by ridicule.