“It looked like you felt sorry for me when you pulled me out with a boat-hook.”
“That was not personal; I didn’t know who it was and it wouldn’t have made any difference who it was. I had to do my duty. It was the same this morning when you ran across the deck and got into the catamaran. But I have been and am real sorry for you, Collins. Now what are you going to do?”
“That’s none of your business, Osborn; whatever I’m going to do you can’t stop me. I’ve got you fixed, that’s certain. And I’m going where one man can’t put another in double irons unless he’s committed a crime. I’ve finished with the Navy where a man is treated like a criminal for trying to see a sick wife. You’re going to be an officer and you think it’s all right to put an enlisted man in irons and treat him as if he were a thief. You think an officer is a different being from an enlisted man. You’ve never had irons on your hands and legs; you don’t know the awful despair that comes over one, the terrible, hopeless feeling. You have no regard for an enlisted man’s honor; you laugh at the idea of his having any. Just let me tell you that I am as proud of the life I’ve lived as any officer is of his life. I’ve always worked hard and supported my mother and my wife. I’ve never lied, nor stolen. And I’ve never touched a drop of liquor in my life. You think enlisted men are a lot of brutes and haven’t feelings. I tell you that man Hester is as good a man and as fine a gentleman as any officer in the Navy, even if he does wear a blue shirt.”
“I knew it, I felt certain of it,” cried Ralph.
“Knew what?” asked Collins mystified.
“I knew that you were a good man. But, Collins, I’m afraid you are a very foolish one and are steering yourself into a lot of trouble.”
“What do you mean, Mr. Osborn?”
“Now what have you done? You’ve broken arrest, which is, I imagine, a serious breach of naval discipline. But to make matters worse you’ve deserted, and stolen a boat. Then, to cap the climax, you assaulted a midshipman on special duty and kidnapped him. If you really were the villain these things would make you out to be you might complete the job and murder me and try to hide the traces of your crime. But you see all this fails because you’re not really a villain; but you’ve got yourself tangled up in an awful mess, and now you don’t know what to do. And you’ve got me on your hands also.”
“Mr. Osborn, if you’ll promise to wait until noon and give me a chance to get away I’ll come up that rope that’s about you. I’ve no desire to harm you.”
“Of course you haven’t, Collins; but I’m not going to make you any promise; what you would try to do is to get to the mainland and then beat your way to Newport News; and what do you suppose would happen then? Before you ever saw your wife you would be arrested; you would be tried by general court martial for desertion, assaulting and kidnapping a midshipman on duty and so forth; by all of these things you have made yourself out to be a desperate criminal. You would be convicted and sent to prison for ten, perhaps fifteen years. And what would become of the poor wife, Collins? Are you proving yourself a good husband to her by doing such things as these? Just think of it all, Collins!”