river, a sharp fin
suddenly cut the muddy water.

"Oho! Mr. Shark loses no time!" cried Magin. He stopped smiling, and
turned back to Gaston. "But we do. Allow me to say, my friend, that you
show yourself really too romantic. This is no doubt an excellent comedy
which we are playing for the benefit of that gentleman on the bluff. But
even he begins to get tired of it. See? He starts to say his morning
prayer. So be so good as to show a little of the reason which you know
how to show, and start for shore. But first you might do well to screw
on the cap of your tank--if you do not mind a little friendly advice."

Gaston looked around absent-mindedly, and took up the nickel cap. But he
suddenly turned back to Magin.

"You speak too much about friends, Monsieur. I am not your friend. I am
your enemy. And I shall not take you there, to the Ab-i-Shuteit. I
shall take you into the Ab-i-Gerger--to Sheleilieh and the English."

Magin considered him, with a flicker in his lighted eyes.

"You might perhaps have done it if you had not forgotten about your
gasolene--And you may yet. We shall see. But it seems to me,
my--enemy!--that you make a miscalculation. Let us suppose that you take
me to Sheleilieh. It is highly improbable, because you no longer have
your knife to assist you. I, it is true, no longer have my revolver to
assist me; but I have two arms, longer and I fancy stronger than yours.
However, let us make the supposition. And let us make the equally
improbable supposition that I fall into the hands of the English. What
can they do to me? The worst they can do is to give me free lodging and
nourishment till the end of the war! Whereas you, Gaston--you do not
seem to have reflected that life will not be so simple for you, after
this. There is a very unpleasant little word by which they name citizens
who do not respond to their country's call to arms. In other words, Mr.
Deserter, you have taken the road which, in war time, ends between a
firing-squad and a stone wall."

Gaston, evidently, had not reflected on that. He stared at his nickel
cap, turning it around in his fingers.

"You see?" continued Magin. "Well then, what about that little Gaston? I
do not know what has suddenly made you so much less reasonable than you
were last night; but I, at least, have not changed. And I see no reason
why that little Gaston should be left between two horns of a dilemma. In
fact I see excellent reasons not only why you should