"I shall
feel most offended if Captain Benson does penance by walking all the
miles back to Spruce Beach."
"I'd be a fool, then, to take that long walk back, when I can ride,"
thought Captain Jack.
So he turned, retracing his steps and bowing to the young woman.
"Yet, before we start," proposed M. Lemaire, anxiously, "let us see,
Captain, if we cannot yet come to some arrangement."
"Well?" demanded Jack, for boyish curiosity tempted him to find how
far this Frenchman was willing to go.
"Captain Benson," proposed Lemaire, "let us say that the price for what
I ask shall be fifteen thousand dollars."
"You're not getting anywhere near my price, M. lemaire," laughed the
submarine boy, derisively.
"You are playing with me--laughing at me!" cried the Frenchman, yet he
spoke cheerily, for now he began to hope that this American boy might
yet be induced to sell himself, body, soul and honor.
"We may as well drop this line of talk," hinted Jack Benson. "You were
good enough to offer me a ride back to town, I believe?"
"Yet the price? Let us settle that first," begged the Frenchman.
"Captain Benson, I will make you one more offer--but it must be the
last. Listen!"
Yet that word was followed by three or four utterly mysterious words,
uttered in a low voice in Arabic.
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