The head gunner's coolness restored Cloarek to himself, and sinking despondently into a chair, he said, gloomily: "You are right, I am a fool. What shall I do? My brain seems to be on fire." "Do you really want to know what I think you had better do?" "Yes." "I think you had better go to Havre immediately." "Leave Sabine in this condition? Increase her alarm by a hasty departure and an incomprehensible absence after all my promises to her? Abandon her when she needs my care and affection more than ever before,--at the time she is about to marry, in short?" "Mlle. Sabine?" "Yes, the idea of this marriage was not at all pleasing to me at first, but now I feel confident that my daughter's future will prove a happy one; still, I ought to guide these children and surround them with the tenderest paternal solicitude, and it is at a time like this that I must put to sea again, and again risk my life now that it has become more necessary than ever to Sabine. I have recovered my senses now, and realise how mad I was to think of killing myself just now. Thanks to you, my tried and faithful friend, I have been saved from that crime." "I wish I could save you from the visit of our ship's crew as well, M. Yvon. You must not forget that danger. If you do not go to them, they will surely come to you." "Then I will go to them," exclaimed Cloarek, as if a way out of the difficulty had suddenly presented itself to his mind. "Yes, I will go to Havre at once, and tell my men that I have abandoned the sea, and that it will be useless for them to attempt to coerce me. You know how determined I am, and how little likelihood there is that I shall yield to overpersuasion. You shall accompany me. You have considerable influence over them, and you must exert it in my behalf. It is the only means of averting the danger that threatens me. It is now two o'clock, by three we shall be in Havre, and back home again by five. My daughter is lying down, and will not even suspect my absence. To avert suspicion, we will take a carriage at the inn." Cloarek had already started toward the door, when the head gunner checked him by saying: "You are making a great mistake in one respect, M. Yvon." "What do you mean?" "If you go to Havre you will not return here until after the cruise is ended." "You are mad." "No, I am not mad." "You think my crew will carry me away by force, do you?" "It is very probable. Besides, when you are with the sailors again, you will not have the strength to resist them." "I will not?" "No." "Not after the reasons I have just stated to you? I shall be back here by five o'clock, I tell you, and before my daughter has even discovered my absence. Your fears are absurd. Come, I say." "You insist?" "Yes, I do." "That which is to be, will be," said Segoffin, shaking his head dubiously, but following his employer for all that.