"You damned fool!"
"Pardon, monsieur?"
A look of fury convulsed Liane's face. Phinuit, too, was glaring, no longer a humourist. Monk's mouth was working, and his eyebrows had got out of hand altogether.
"I said you were a damned fool--"
"But is not that a matter of personal viewpoint? At least, the question would seem to be open to debate."
"If you think arguments will satisfy us--!"
"But, my dear Captain Monk, I am really not at all concerned to satisfy you. However, if you wish to know my reasons for declining the honour you would thrust upon me, they are at your service."
"I'll be glad to hear them," said Monk grimly.
"One, I fancy, will do as well as a dozen. It is, then, my considered judgment that, were I in the least inclined to resume the evil ways of my past--as I am not--I would be, as you so vividly put it, a damned fool to associate myself with people of a low grade of intelligence, wanting even enough to hold fast that which they have thieved!"
"By God!" Monk brought down a thumping fist. "What are you getting at?"