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 I found that in each
case the same mistakes were made, and that then, in order to remedy
the mistakes, it was invariably necessary to kill somebody. Now, by
not making those mistakes, it will not be necessary for me to kill
any one, and nobody is going to have a chance to kill me.
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