“I don’t understand.�
“A little liquor would have inflamed them, a great deal stupefies them. They are as helpless as logs now, and if I had three good men besides myself I could take the ship. As it is—� I hesitated—“I am here to serve you. I am going to leave the ship and take you with me.�
“But how—when?�
For answer I threw open the stern window of her cabin. On a level with it swung a small boat, a whaleboat. Now I had taken occasion during the day to lower that boat little by little, a few inches at a time and then a few inches at another time, as I had opportunity to get near the falls and to manipulate them unobserved, being sheltered by the trunk cabin, of which all the men were forward, and I had succeeded in my purpose without attracting attention, although the risk had been tremendous. Of course, I couldn’t lower it clear to the water, but I had brought it down to the level of the cabin windows. Its sea lashings were cast off and I had no doubt, if conditions on deck were as I expected them to be, I could lower it all the way later on with impunity.
“What do you mean?� she asked, staring out of the window and into the empty boat.
“I mean that you and I are going to embark in that boat tonight and leave this ship.�
“But where are we going?�
“There is land not a league and a half under our lee. It seems to be the most easterly of a cluster of islands.�
“Is it the island we seek, do you think?�
“I have no doubt,� I replied, “if there is such an island, that it will be one of the cluster. We are in exactly the latitude and the longitude of the chart if my calculations are correct.�