Which was indeed true, but not as he intended my Captain to take it, and as my Captain did take it.
‘Well,’ grumbled Nathaniel, ‘you are a pair of fools, both of you,’ and as he spoke he glanced from one to the other with those little shrewd eyes of his, looking at my Captain first and then at Cornelys.
Young as I was, and fresh to the reading of the faces of crafty men, I thought that the look in his eyes—for his face changed not at all—was very different when they rested on the brown face of Cornelys Jensen than when they looked on the florid visage of my good patron. He glanced with contempt upon his kinsman, but I did not see contempt in the gaze he fixed upon Cornelys, who returned his gaze with a steady, unabashed stare.
‘Yes,’ the old man went on, ‘you are a pair of fools, and a fool and his money is a pithy proverb, and true enough of one of you. But it is well sometimes to treat a fool according to his folly, and so, if you are really determined upon this adventure——’
He paused, and looked again at the Captain and again at Cornelys Jensen.
Cornelys Jensen remained perfectly unmoved. The Captain’s face grew a shade redder.
‘I am,’ he said shortly.
‘Very well, then,’ said the old gentleman; ‘as you are my brother, I must needs humour you. You shall have the moneys you need——’
‘Now that’s talking,’ interrupted the Captain.
‘Although I know it is a foolhardy thing for me to do.’