"
The falsehood was so rash a slip that its author paused, but when Hugh's
face showed no change he resumed: "Sir, it is in your interest we ask
you to put those foreigners off. If you don't you'll rouse public
resentment up and down this river a hundred miles wide for a thousand
miles. And if, keeping them aboard, you don't put Madam Hayle and her
daughter on some other boat, and anything happens to them on this one,
you'll have Gideon Hayle and his sons--and his sons-in-law--for your
mortal enemies the rest of your lives, long or short--and with public
sympathy all on their side. Oh, I'm nothing if not outspoken! Why, my
dear boy, if you don't think I'm telling you this in friendship----"
"Call it so. But stop it, at once."
"Why--you say that--to me?"
"I do. Stop it, at once, or we'll call it----"
"Ridiculous! What will you call it, sir?"
"Mutiny. The captain has so ordered--and arranged."
The inquirer drew breath, leaned forward on an elbow, and stared. The
stare was returned. The senator began to smile. Hugh did not. The smile
grew. Hugh's gaze was fixed. The smiler smiled yet more, but in vain.
Abruptly he ha-haed.
"We'll call it that till you prove it's not," said Hugh.
"Did you ever hear of a poker face?" asked the senator.
"No, sir.
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