"I imply nothing. I only say this: if you
know anything you haven't told us, my advice is to make a clean breast of
it."
"I have nothing to tell you, monsieur, beyond the fact that I find you,
your tone, your manner, and your choice of words, intolerably insolent."
"Then you know nothing--?"
"Monsieur!" Lanyard cried sharply.
"Very good," the captain persisted. "I'll take your word for it--and give
you till we take on our pilot to find the real criminal and make him give
up that paper."
"And if I fail?"
"Not a soul on board leaves the _Assyrian_ till the murderer and thief are
found--if they are not one."
"But that is a general threat; whereas monsieur has honoured me by
making this a personal matter. What punishment have you prepared for
me specifically, if I fail to accomplish this task which baffles
your--shrewdness?"
"I'll at least inform the port authorities in New York, tell them who you
are, and have you barred out of the country."
"I want to say, Lanyard," Crane interposed, "this isn't my notion of how to
deal with you, or in any way by my advice.
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