Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/226

 But rest assured I should not have gone without writing to you"

"Ah! you are making a fool of me now."

"Because I had intended to get you to accompany me."

The Scot gave a bound that would have done credit to a chamois. "Ah, that, indeed," said he; "then I suppose you wish us both to be shut up in Bedlam together?"

"I have positively counted upon you, my dear Dick, and have chosen you to the exclusion of everybody else."

Kennedy remained in a state of stupefaction. "When you have listened to me for about ten minutes," continued the doctor, quietly, "you will thank me."

"Are you serious?"

"Perfectly."

"And suppose I refuse to go with you?"

"But you will not refuse."

"Yet if I do?"

"I shall go alone, that's all."

"Look here; let us sit down," said the Scot, " and talk this business over calmly. If you are not joking, it is worth our while to discuss it."

"Well, then, let us discuss it at breakfast, if you have no objection, my dear Dick."

The two friends accordingly sat down, a great plate of sandwiches, and an enormous teapot between them. "My dear Sam," said the sportsman, "your project is a foolish one; it is impossible. There is nothing tangible nor practicable in it."

"We shall see, after we have attempted it."

"But that is not the point. It is not necessary to try it."

"Why not, if you please?"

"Why, look at the dangers and obstacles of all kinds involved in it"

"Obstacles," replied Ferguson seriously, "are only invented to be overcome; as for danger, who can ever escape it? Life is made up of dangers. It is, perhaps, very dangerous to sit down at this table, or to put on one's hat; we must, however, look upon what is likely to happen as having already happened, and see only the present in the future; for the future is merely the present a little farther off."

"What!" cried Kennedy, shrugging his shoulders, "so you are still a fatalist?"