"
"Sorry I must decline. A prior engagement...."
"But you see, Lanyard," Phinuit urged earnestly, "we've taken no end of
a fancy to you. We like you, really, for yourself alone. And with that
feeling the outgrowth of our very abbreviated acquaintance--think what
a friendship might come of a real opportunity to get to know one
another well."
"Some other time, messieurs...."
"But please!" Phinuit persisted--"just think for one moment--and do
forget that pistol I know you've got in a handy pocket. We're all
unarmed here, Mademoiselle Delorme, the skipper and I. We can't stop
your going, if you insist, and we know too much to try. But there are
those aboard who might. Jules, for instance: if he saw you making a
getaway and knew it might mean a term in a French prison for him....
And if I do say it as shouldn't of my kid brother, Jules is a dead
shot. Then there are others. There'd surely be a scrimmage on the
decks; and how could we explain that to the police, who, I am able to
assure you from personal observation, are within hail? Why, that you
had been caught trying to stow away with your loot, which you dropped
in making your escape.
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