"I don't exactly like your, use of the word right, Ralph," said Billy.
"You mean duty, don't you?"
"And he'd better change that to privilege," put in Pete Murphy,
scowling.
"Shut up, you mick," Honey interposed, flicking Pete on the ear with a
pebble. "What do you know about machinery?"
Pete grinned and subsided for a moment. Honey could always placate him
by calling him a mick."
"No," Ralph went on obstinately, addressing himself this time to Billy,
"I mean right. Of course, I mean right," he went on with one of his,
gusty bursts of, irritation. "For God's sake, don't be so high-brow and
altruistic."
"How about it, Frank?" Billy said, turning to Merrill.
"Well," said Frank slowly, "I don't exactly know how to answer that
question. I don't know what you mean by the word - right. I take it that
you mean what our right would be if these flying-maidens permitted
themselves to become our friends. I would say, that, in such a case, you
would have the only right that any man ever has, as far as women are
concerned - the right to woo. If he wins, all well and good. If he
loses, he must abide by the consequences."
"You're on, Frank," said Billy Fairfax.
You've said the last word."
"In normal condition, I'd agree with you," Ralph said. "But in these
conditions I disagree utterly."
"How?" Frank asked. "Why?" He turned to Ralph with the instinctive
equability that he always presented to an opponent in argument.
"Well, in the first place, we find ourselves in a, situation
unparalleled in the world's history." Ralph had the air of one who is
saying aloud for the first time what he has said to himself many times.
At any rate, he proceeded with an unusual fluency and glibness.
"Circumstances alter cases. We can't handle this situation by any of the
standards we have formerly known. In fact, we've got to throw all our
former standards overboard. There are five of these girls. There are
five of us. Voila! Following the laws of nature we have selected each of
us the mates we prefer. Or, following the law that Bernard Shaw
discovered, the ladies have selected, each of them, the mates that they
prefer. They are now turning themselves inside out to prove to us that
we selected them. Voila! The rest is obvious. If they come to terms, all
right! If they don't - " He paused. "I repeat that we are placed in, a
situation new in the history of the world. I repeat the bromidion -
circumstances alter cases. We may have to stay on this island as long as
we live. I am perfectly willing to confess that just now I'd rather not
be rescued. But it's over our months that we've been here. We must think
of the future. The future justifies anything. If these girls don't come
to terms, they must be made to come to terms. You'll find I'm right."