I pulled the stroke paddle, Mr. Goodfellow the bow,
and the Captain steered. Dr. Beauregard addressed himself to the
ladies, of whom Miss Belcher sat with a corrugated brow, as though
turning a thought over and over in her mind, and Plinny with scared
eyes, staring into vacancy.
"I am sorry, indeed, ladies," said the Doctor, "that I could not have
spared you this. The fool shot his mate--you saw it yourselves--
without rhyme or reason. Against madness, and the impulses of
madness, no man can calculate. I might plead, too, that in an
undertaking like this you match yourselves against forces with which
it is not given to ladies to cope. I grant admiringly the courage
that brought you across thousands of miles to Mortallone, as I grant,
and again admiringly, the steadiness of your behaviour this
afternoon. But one thing you did not know--that in the nature of
things you were bound to meet with such men and see such things done.
I have not lived beside treasure all these years without learning
that it attracts such men as carrion attracts the vultures. Hide it
where you will, from the end of the earth _some_ bird of prey will
spy it out, or at least some scent of it will lie and draw such
prowlers as this fellow.
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