“No, sir, not much, I was busy here. The crew ate a deal.”
“But you knew about Mr Walters being shut up in the cable-tier?”
The cook glanced uneasily toward the forecastle-hatch and shook his head.
“They can’t hear you,” I said, “and even if they could they can’t get at you.”
“I don’t know, sir,” he whispered; “that Jarette’s got ears such as no man before ever had. I’ve often thought it isn’t hearing he has, but a kind of knowing.”
“Oh, he’s knowing enough!” I said, laughing.
“I don’t mean that, Mr Dale,” he whispered. “I mean there’s something uncanny about him, as the Scotch people say, and he can tell what you are thinking about without your saying it.”
“Oh, nonsense!”
“It arn’t nonsense, sir, and there’s more about him than you think for. Why, he can do anything with the men. They’re not only afraid of him, but they’re obliged to do what he wants, and if I was Mr Brymer, sir, I shouldn’t rest till he was put in a boat and sent off to shift for himself.”
“You think he’s dangerous then?”