"Wait!" said Asher. "Are you the grasping young miser that asked fourteen per cent.!"
"He is, clear enough," said Stean.
"Well," said Thurstan, "I really think—look you, boys, I really do think, but I speak under correction—I really think, all things considered, this Jacob is a damned rascal."
"I may have the advantage of him in years," said Asher, doubling up his sleeves, "but if I can't——"
"Go to the devil," said Jacob, and he went below, boiling hot with rage.
It was idle to keep up the quarrel, for very soon all six were out on the high seas, bound to each other's company at bed and board, and doomed to pass the better part of a fortnight together. So before they came to Iceland they were good friends, after their fashion, though that was perhaps the fashion of cat and mouse, and being landed at Reykjavik they were once more in their old relations, with Jacob as purse-bearer and spokesman.
"And now listen," said that thrifty person. "What's it saying? 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' We've got our bird in the hand, haven't we?"
"So we have," said Asher; "six hundred golden pounds that Ballacraine fetched at the sale."
"Just so," said Jacob; "and before we part with it let us make sure about the two in the bush."
With that intention they started inquiries, as best they could; touching the position of Michael Sunlocks, his salary and influence. And in spite of the difficulties of language they heard and saw enough to satisfy them. Old Iceland was awakening from a bad dream of three bad centuries and setting to work with a will to become a power among the States; the young President, Michael Sunlocks, was the restorer and protector of her liberties; fame and honor were before him, and before all who laid a hand to his plough. This was what they heard in many jargons on every side.