“But you called me a ‘dog,’” pursued M. Lemaire, plaintively.  “To a Frenchman that is the gr-r-r-rand insult!”

“Let it go at that, then,” proposed Benson, with a pretense at amiability.

“Ah!  Then you will forget what has just happened, if I will?” cried the Frenchman, eagerly.  “That is admir-r-r-rable!  Now, then, ten thousand dollars I have said you shall be paid for what you will furnish me.  Ah, even in this rich country, one can do much with ten dollars!”

“It wouldn’t be much, I’m afraid, as compared with my prospects with the Pollard Company,” replied Captain Jack, with his most thoughtful air.

“Your prospects with the company?” echoed M. Lemaire.  “Why, my bright young captain, your prospects with the company will continue just the same.  They will never know that you have taken this little fortune from me.  Ten thousand dollars!  Think of that!”

“And you’d turn around and sell what I’d, give you for a half a million, very likely.”

“Oh, no, no, no!” disclaimed the Frenchman, solemnly.  “There would be nothing like that in it for me.”

“Then no foreign government wants very badly to know about the Pollard plans,” inquired Jack.

“There is no government that would pay a really great fortune for such information,”.  M. Lemaire assured the submarine boy.

“There is one,” retorted Captain Jack, with a cunning smile.

“Which one?” demanded the Frenchman, doubtingly.

“One that you don’t happen to represent,” laughed Jack, quietly.

“Ah, I much doubt it, though I beg you to pardon me for saying so, Captain Benson.”

“Why man alive,” grumbled Jack, “are you running away with the notion that you’re the only one who ever approached me with a view to finding out how the Pollard boat runs?  You claim, to be a spy for some other government, M. Lemaire.  Are you such an infant as to think yourself the only spy in the field?”

“You would have to tell me about the others.  Name them, or describe them to me,” urged the Frenchman.  “Then I would know, if they are real agents of any foreign government.”

“I would tell you nothing of the sort,” muttered Captain Jack.  “I am young, perhaps, yet I’m old enough to keep my own secrets.”

“Then it is agreed, anyway,” hastened on the Frenchman, “that, in three days, you will have ready the plans and descriptions, and that I, after I have looked them over and have found them satisfactory, will hand you ten thousand dollars.”

“If you’ve made any such agreement,” laughed Benson, “then you’ve made it with yourself only.  You certainly haven’t made it with me.”

“Don’t you agree, then?” asked M. Lemaire.

“No,” said Jack, shortly, turning on his heel.

“Where are you going, Captain?”

“Back to Spruce Beach.”

“On foot?”

“Yes, for I know your kind too well to suppose that you’ll offer me a ride back.”