"You remember the time when Ferguson didn't go down on the _Argentina_?"
"I do. Ferguson just wouldn't go down, you know. He'd turn up smiling,
without even a chill, and meanwhile lots of good fellows would be at the
bottom of the sea."
"Prejudice again," barked Havelock. "Yet in point of fact, it's
perfectly true. And you would have preferred him to drown."
"I was very glad he was saved." Chantry said it in a stilted manner.
"Why?"
"Because his life was really important to the world."
Chantry might have been distributing tracts. His very voice sounded
falsetto.
"Exactly. Well, that is what Ferguson thought."
"How do you know?"
"He told me."
"You must have known him well. Thank heaven, I never did."
Havelock flung out a huge hand. "Oh, get off that ridiculous animal
you're riding, Chantry, and come to the point. You mean you don't think
Ferguson should have admitted it?"