"If I did, I'd try to bring him to his senses."
"Waste of time. With these cubs you may be able to do something, though I doubt it. Quixande's past mending."
"No man is past mending till he's dead. Perhaps not then----"
"Ah!"--with a pinch of snuff and a wave of the hand, "A hopeful creed, but with no more foundation than most others. It would, however, undoubtedly commend itself to Quixande on his death-bed."
"A hopeful creed is better than a hopeless one," said Eager, with emphasis.
"Undoubtedly, if you admit the necessity of such things."
"Thank God, I do."
"Well, well! However--what you are doing for those boys should benefit one of them, though it's thrown away upon the other."
"And if you never solve the puzzle?"
"If one of them dies I accept the other in full. That's the solution."