Part 23 (1/2)
”Why not?” Colonel John responded, looking round him, a twinkle in his eye. ”The goods of his host are in a manner of speaking the house of his host. And it is the duty--as I said once before.”
”But is it not that they are--of your kin?”
”That is the reason,” Colonel John answered cryptically, and to the skipper's surprise. But that surprise lasted a very short time. ”Listen to me,” the Colonel continued. ”This goes farther than you think, and to cure it we must not stop short. Let me speak, and do you, my friends, listen. Courage, and I will give you not only freedom but a good bargain.”
The skipper stared. ”How so?” he asked.
Then Colonel John unfolded the plan on which he had been meditating while the waves lapped his smarting chin, while the gorse bushes p.r.i.c.ked his feet, and the stones gibed them. It was a great plan, and before all things a bold one; so bold that Augustin gasped as it unfolded itself, and the seamen, who, with the freedom of foreign sailors in a s.h.i.+p of fortune, crowded the foot of the companion, opened their eyes.
Augustin smacked his lips. ”It is what you call _magnifique_!” he said.
”But,” he shrugged his shoulders, ”it is not possible!”
”If the fog holds?”
”But if it--what you call--lifts? What then, eh?”
”Through how many storms have you ridden?” the Colonel answered. ”Yet if the mast had gone?”
”We had gone! _Vraiment!_
”That did not keep you ash.o.r.e.”
Augustin cogitated over this for a while. Then, ”But we are eight only,” he objected. ”Myself, nine.”
”And two are eleven,” Colonel John replied.
”We do not know the ground.”
”I do.”
The skipper shrugged his shoulders.
”And they have treated you--but you know how they have treated you,”
Colonel John went on, appealing to the lower motive.
The group of seamen who stood about the door growled seamen's oaths.
”There are things that seem hard,” the Colonel continued, ”and being begun, pouf! they are done while you think of them!”
Captain Augustin of Bordeaux swelled out his breast. ”That is true,” he said. ”I have done things like that.”
”Then do one more!”
The skipper's eyes surveyed the men's faces. He caught the spark in their eyes. ”I will do it,” he cried.
”Good!” Colonel John cried. ”The arms first!”
CHAPTER XIII
A SLIP