Oh, well, what's the odds?
'Tis only the question of a ball in the back to-night, or a ball in the front to-morrow.

If you chance to have a tuck ready for my hand, friend, I 'll try a dash at the deck just for the sport of it." I shook my head emphatically.
"We will attempt passage without flashing of weapons, or not at all.

I grant a quick stroke might win us the open, yet would only serve to rouse the ship; neither of us would ever lift head above the river surface without a bullet in the brain." "It is the only way fit for a gentleman." "Confound your gentlemen!" I cried, now thoroughly aroused at this ill-chosen trifling with time.

"Either you do as I bid you, or else we settle down without any more ado, to wait the file to-morrow.

How often does the Commandant look in ?" "On the stroke of the ship's bell." "Then, Monsieur, the sooner you arrive at some decision the better.