‘Oh, your devotion breaks my heart! I was worthy of it once.’
‘The ship will be in the hands of the convicts to-morrow.’
‘And Will--and Will, Tom?’ I said in a whisper that shuddered with the icy fit.
‘I have stipulated for Will. They’ll not hurt him.’
‘Some of the crew are with them. For three weeks this has been secretly working out. I’m the only navigator among the convicts, and they depend on me.’ He added, after a pause, during which my breath came and went hysterically: ‘If you fear for yourself or for Will; if you think this thing should not be done--for it will be attempted, and if it is attempted it will be done--go to the captain of the ship, tell him that the convicts, backed by a portion of his crew, have planned to seize the vessel, and that to save her the sentries must be doubled throughout, no convicts allowed on deck, no messmen to pass the main-hatch sentry, the prison victuals to be passed through the door of the steerage bulkhead by the soldiers, mates, and trustworthy petty officers of the ship.’
‘Sooner than speak, I would fling myself into the sea.’
‘They have driven me to it!’ he cried, raising his voice; and he stamped on the deck in the passion of the minute.
‘Gangway there!’ shouted the forecastle sentry. ‘What are you doing at that barricade? Come out of it!’
I instantly walked forward, and whilst I walked I heard the voice of the doctor on the poop.
‘Let the people fall in. Let the captains rank them on the starboard side, where they’ll get a good view.’
I went up the forecastle ladder, at the head of which stood the sentry. He was the husband of the pretty young woman--the Dick who had been on duty when I visited the barracks.
‘Is it you?’ said he. ‘You mustn’t get yarning with the convicts. It’s against the orders.’
‘Yarning!’ said I. ‘If a prisoner wishes me good-night and asks me questions about the moon, I may stop to be civil, I hope?’
‘It’s against the orders,’ said he, and with a swing of his figure he resumed his walk.
The greater part of the crowd on the forecastle stood in the bows or head of the ship. The whole of the crew was assembled; the soldiers’ wives, some of them holding children by the hands, swelled the crowd. I stepped to a part of the forecastle rail where the deck was vacant and looked out to sea. The hush on the ocean this side the storm was unutterably deep, and the distant tempest did not vex it, though the great masses of vapour had risen considerably and the lightning was running all over the breast of it in rills of fire, and the thunder boomed along the level plain of sea as though some leviathan mermen or Titans of the brine were playing at bowls upon the horizon.