This matter is a business proposition, and as such I lay it
before you. If we adopt it, we do so for certain reasons, and beyond
those reasons neither of us is qualified to go. We should keep our eyes
fixed upon the main point, and think of nothing else."
"Something else must be looked at," said Edna. "It is just as likely that
you will come back as that you will be lost at sea."
"This plan is based entirely on the latter supposition," replied the
captain. "It has nothing to do with the other. If we consider it at all,
we must consider it in that light."
"But we must consider it in the other light," she said. She was now quite
pale, and her face had a certain sternness about it.
"I positively refuse to do that," he said. "I will not think about it,
or say one word about it. I will not even refer to any future settlement
of that question. The plan I present rests entirely upon my non-return."
"But if you do return?" persisted Edna.
The captain smiled and shook his head. "You must excuse me," he said,
"but I can say nothing about that."
She looked steadily at him for a few moments, and then she said: "Very
well, we will say nothing about it. As to the plan which has been
devised to give us, in case of accident to you, a sound claim to the
treasure which has been found here, and to a part of which I consider I
have a right, I consent to it.
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