This little episode did not tend to make Syd more comfortable, and from that hour whenever he saw any of the men or officers talking together, he immediately fancied that they must be discussing and disapproving of Captain Belton’s action in running away.
It was long afterwards that Syd knew that his father’s orders were to stop for nothing, but to make all speed for the West Indies, where another vessel of war was lying. Though without those orders it would have been madness to have allowed the enemy to close in and attack.
Syd was on deck at daybreak, eager to scan the horizon, but only to find that those before him of the watch had been performing the same duty with their glasses, and there was not a sail in sight.
Chapter Twenty One.
There was plenty of talk during the next fortnight’s slow sailing down into the tropics, and the captain’s conduct was widely discussed, Sydney every now and then coming upon some knot where those who considered the captain had played a cowardly part were in the ascendant. “Nailed the colours to the mast, and gone down together like heroes,” some one said, and Sydney, who did not want to die like a hero if he could help it, but had the ambition of any healthy boy to live as long as possible, went away, feeling very low-spirited, till he came upon another excited group, at the head of whom was the boatswain.
“What!” cried the latter, in answer to a remark made by one of the opposition; “ought to have gone at ’em and give ’em chain-shot in their rigging, when you’ve got sealed orders. Look ye here, my lads, when you’ve been afloat as long as I have, you’ll know that whether you’re able seaman, or luff, cap, or admiral, you’ve got to obey. Our orders is to go right away to the West Indies, and not stop playing on the road. Strikes me as nothing would have pleased the skipper better than a game of bowls with the Parley Voos. I’ve sailed with him before.”
“Oh, yes; you’ve often said that,” cried one of the men.
“And I says it again, Tom Rogers. And I says this here too—don’t you let him hear you say anything o’ that kind, or you might have it repeated till it got into the cabin.”