The
business, they declared, must be despatched at once;
they had run risk enough, with a conscience, and they
must either finish now, or go."
"The choice is yours, gentlemen," said I, "and, I
believe, the eagerness. I am not yet sure that I have
anything in your way; even if I have, there are a
hundred things to be considered; and I assure you it is
not at all my habit to do business with a pistol to my
head."
"That is all very proper, Mr. Dodd; there is no wish to
coerce you, believe me," said Fowler; "only, please
consider our position. It is really dangerous; we were
not the only people to see your schooner off
Waimanolo."
"Mr. Fowler," I replied, "I was not born yesterday.
Will you allow me to express an opinion, in which I may
be quite wrong, but to which I am entirely wedded? If
the Custom-House officers had been coming, they would
have been here now. In other words, somebody is
working the oracle, and (for a good guess) his name is
Fowler."
Both men laughed loud and long; and being supplied with
another bottle of Longhurst's champagne, suffered the
captain and myself to leave them without further word.
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