We'd have lost them.
"Again, news of any such operations would have got out. My plans would
possibly have been checkmated. In the third place, what you propose
would have been tame sport, indeed, as a beginning! Three excellent
reasons, my dear Major, why this is positively the only way."
"Perhaps. But there's always the chance of failure, now. The guards--"
"After your own experience, when that capsule burst in the laboratory,
you talk to me about guards?"
"Suppose one escapes?"
The Master only smiled grimly, and sighted his course up the dark
river.
"And the alarm is sure to be given, in no time. Why didn't you just
buy the thing outright?"
"It's not for sale, at any price."
"Still--men can't run off with three and a half million dollars' worth
of property and with provisions and equipment like that, all ready for
a trial trip, without raising Hell. There'll be pursuit--"
"What with, my dear Bohannan?"
"That's a foolish statement of mine, the last one, I admit," answered
the major, as his companion swung the launch a little toward the
Jersey shore. "Of course nothing can overhaul us, once we're away.
But you know my type of mind weighs every possibility, pro and con.
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