"
"Can't?" repeated the other.
"It is not very pleasant to keep on refusing friends," said the captain,
making amends for his harshness by pouring a serious overdose of whisky
into Mr. Chalk's glass, "and it's only natural for you to be anxious
about it, so I removed the temptation out of my way."
"Removed the temptation?" repeated Mr. Chalk.
"I burnt the map," said the captain, with a smile.
"Burnt it?" gasped Mr. Chalk. "BURNT it?"
"Burnt it to ashes," said the captain, jovially.
"It's a load off my mind. I ought to have done it before. In fact,
I never ought to have made the map at all."
Mr. Chalk stared at him in speechless dismay.
"Try that," said the captain, handing Mr. Stobell his glass.
Mr. Stobell took it from mere force of habit, and sat holding it in his
hand as though he had forgotten what to do with it.
"I did it yesterday morning," said the captain, noticing their
consternation. "I had just lit my pipe after breakfast, and I suppose
the match put me in mind of it. I took out the map and set light to it
at Cape Silvio. The flame ran half-way round the coast and then popped
through the middle of the paper and converted Mount Lonesome into a
volcano.
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