"I can only make it a favor; and not for your own sake, either."

"I know. Mary will be sleeping the sleep of the just in the next
room. How little she'll guess! Perhaps, if I see an apparition
worthy of the Golden Age, I'll call her up."

"Do oblige me, May."

"In anything on earth but this thing. It's really too late now.
Don't you see you've defeated your own object? You mustn't ask me
to throw up the sponge to your sudden intuition of danger sprung
on me at the eleventh hour. I won the toss, and can't take my
orders from you, old chap, can I?"

The other, in his turn, grew a little warm.

"All right. I've spoken. I think you're rather a fool to be so
obstinate. It isn't as if a nervous old woman was talking to you.
But you'll go your own way. It doesn't matter a button to me, and
I only made it a favor for somebody else's sake."

"We'll leave it at that, then. May I trouble you for the key?
And your revolver, too. I haven't got mine here."

Henry hesitated. The key was in the pocket of his jacket.

"It is a matter of honor, Lennox," said the sailor.

The other handed over the key on this speech, and prepared to go.