“Not a great deal more than you have told. Those 88 two men, I am satisfied, are old acquaintances, who have been partners in more than one crime, though we supposed them strangers at the time we shipped them; and I have no doubt they began planning our deaths from the day we sailed out of San Francisco harbor.”
“What about Pomp?”
“They had a hard time, but they have won him over, and he is pledged to go with them.”
“And you have tried to gain the good will of Pomp?”
“I have done my utmost, and have treated him with unusual leniency, making him many presents, some of which I gave him to understand came from you. But they’ve got him, for all that. There’s our greatest safeguard.”
As the mate spoke, he pointed to Inez, who, at that moment, came bounding up the steps of the cabin and ran laughing forward.
“Pomp thinks all the world of her, and she will be the peacemaker, perhaps.”
“But don’t they like her as well?”
“No; they wouldn’t hesitate any more over killing her than they would in killing us.”
“The villains!” muttered the horrified captain. “I never conceived it possible that any human being could fail to love such beauty and innocence as hers.”