I saw that in my enthusiasm I had perhaps alarmed him. I continued more
temperately.

"Any expedition after treasure," I pointed out, "is never without risk.
You must have discipline, and you must have picked men. Suppose there's
a mutiny? Suppose they try to rob us of the treasure on our way home? We
must have men we can rely on, and men who know how to pump a Winchester.
I can get you both. And Bannerman will furnish me with anything from a
pair of leggins to a quick firing gun, and on Clark Street they'll quote
me a special rate on ship stores, hydraulic pumps, divers' helmets----"

Edgar's eye-glasses became frosted with cold, condemnatory scorn. He
shook his head disgustedly.

"I was afraid of this!" he murmured.

I endeavored to reassure him.

"A little danger," I laughed, "only adds to the fun."

"I want you to understand," exclaimed Edgar indignantly, "there isn't
going to be any danger. There isn't going to be any fun. This is a plain
business proposition. I asked you those questions just to test you. And
you approached the matter exactly as I feared you would. I was prepared
for it. In fact," he explained shamefacedly, "I've read several of your
little stories, and I find they run to adventure and blood and thunder;
they are not of the analytical school of fiction. Judging from them,"
he added accusingly, "you have a tendency to the romantic." He spoke
reluctantly as though saying I had a tendency to epileptic fits or the
morphine habit.

"I am afraid," I was forced to admit, "that to me pirates and buried
treasure always suggest adventure. And your criticism of my writings is
well observed. Others have discovered the same fatal weakness. We cannot
all," I pointed out, "manufacture unshrinkable flannels."

At this compliment to his more fortunate condition, Edgar seemed to
soften.

"I grant you," he said, "that the subject has almost invariably been
approached from the point of view you take. And what," he demanded
triumphantly, "has been the result? Failure, or at least, before success
was attained, a most unnecessary and regrettable loss of blood and life.
Now, on my expedition, I do not intend that any blood shall be shed, or
that anybody shall lose his life. I have not entered into this matter
hastily. I have taken out information, and mean to benefit by other
people's mistakes. When I decided to go on with this," he explained,
"I read all the books that bear on searches for buried treasure, and