KING:

What do you mean?

FREDERIC:

To-day I am out of my indentures, and to-day I leave you for ever.

KING:

But this is quite unaccountable; a keener hand at scuttling a Cunarder or cutting out a White Star never shipped a handspike.

FREDERIC:

Yes, I have done my best for you. And why? It was my duty under my indentures, and I am the slave of duty. As a child I was regularly apprenticed to your band. It was through an error — no matter, the mistake was ours, not yours, and I was in honour bound by it.

Back to the first page