"
"Then plague has actually been found?"
"Determined by bacteriological test this morning."
"How do you know?"
"I was present at the finding."
"Who did it? Dr. Pruyn?"
The other nodded.
Sherwen whistled.
"Better make ready to move, Mr. Brewster," he advised. "You can't
get out of port after quarantine is on. At least, you couldn't get
into any other port, even if you sailed, because your sailing-
master wouldn't have clearance papers."
The magnate smiled.
"I hardly think that any United States Consul, with a due regard
for his future, would refuse papers to the yacht Polly," he
observed.
"Don't be a fool!"
Thatcher Brewster all but jumped from his chair. That this
adjuration should have come from the freakish spectacle-wearer
seemed impossible. Yet Sherwen, the only other person in the room,
was certainly not guilty.
"Did you address me, young man?"
"I did."
"Do you know, sir, that since boyhood no person has dared or would
dare to call me a fool?"
"Well, I don't want to set a fashion," said the other equably.
"I'm only advising you not to be."
"Keep your advice until it's wanted.
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