And
if anybody should ask you, you can safely promise them that several
million soreheads like myself are what the politicians call 'a menace
to the established social order'."
Clear daylight filled the ports. The traffic on deck nearly deserved
the name of din. Commands and calls were being bawled in English,
French, and polyglot profanity. A donkey-engine was rumbling, a winch
clattering, a capstan-pawl clanking. Alongside a tug was panting
hoarsely. The engine room telegraph jangled furiously, the fabric of
the Sybarite shuddered and gathered way.
"We're off," yawned Phinuit. "Now will you be reasonable and go to
bed?"
"You may, monsieur," said Lanyard, getting up. "For my part, I shall go
on deck, if you don't mind, and stop there till the pilot leaves us."
"Fair enough!"
"But one moment more. You have been extraordinarily frank, but you have
forgotten one element, to me of some importance: you have not told me
what my part is in this insane adventure."
"That's not my business to tell you," Phinuit replied promptly. "When
anything as important as that comes out, it won't be through my
babbling.
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