Teddy lighted a cigarette nervously and replied:
“Well, dash it all, let’s hear what’s proposed first.”
“No, sir!” shouted Brentin, thumping the table. “You go or you stay, one or the other; we will have no ha-alf measures. The time for them has elapsed.”
“Very well,” stammered the unhappy Parsons, “if you are all going to stay, of course I must stay too. I thought the affair was all over, that’s why I spoke. I wasn’t thinking, you know, of deserting my pals.”
“Bravo!” cried Hines, sardonically. “You ain’t exactly a hero, Parsons, but I dare say you’ll do very well.”
“There is just one thing I should like to point out,” Arthur Masters observed, “before we go any further. The affair is assuming a somewhat grave aspect, and it is of course possible that, in spite of all precautions, we may, after all, be captured, either on shore or, later, on board the yacht.”
“Hear! Hear!” Teddy murmured.
“Now, is it fair to get Captain Evans and the crew into difficulties without letting them know what we are going to do, and giving them the chance of refusing to join us first?”
“Well, sir,” objected Brentin, “we always meant to tell him, but not until the last moment, when we should have claimed their assistance, if only in removing the boodle. You see, gentlemen, the British sailor is a fine fellow, but he is apt to tank-up and get full—full as ay goat, gentlemen—and in that condition he is confiding. Now we have unfortunately been confiding when dry, but the British sailor—”
“We must risk that,” Masters replied. “And, after all, once they are told and have consented, they can be refused permission to go on shore again before we start.”