“‘Well, the Merrimac was ’long-side and ready. Incloodin’ Lieutenant Hobson himself, eight of us were chosen for this deed o’ danger. Torpedoes were arranged in the hold. Hobson would stand by the helmsman, Hobson would touch the button and sink her, and, at a word, we should leap into the sea and swim for the dinghy towin’ astern, for this was our only hope o’ salvation.
“‘Jack, here, had stood by my side among the volunteers, but the poor lad was passed over. Don’t nudge me, Jackie lad; I’m goin’ to tell the truth, the whole bloomin’ truth, and nothin’ but—so there! I’ll never forget, sir, the look o’ disappointment on the lad’s face just then. Some time after, I found him for’ard with his back to the ship and his face to the sea. He looked smartly up, but I could see by the starlight there were tears on his face.
“‘He said nothing, but walked away impatient like, and I saw him no more for a time.’
“The bo’s’n leaned towards me now, and his eyes sparkled in the moonlight. He touched my knee with his horny palm.
“‘We steamed away,’ he said, in a hoarse half-whisper—steamed into the darkness and away from the flag-ship. Not a sound for a time save the hollow dump o’ the screw and the swirl o’ the seethin’ seas!
“‘In silence we steamed—it might have been for half an hour, but it seemed like an age—an age of blackness and terror. Nothing was nateral like. The ship was a death-ship, the figures agin the bulwarks yonder were spectres. I would have given worlds to have heard but a word, a laugh, a cough even!
“‘I said there were eight of us! By the sky above us yonder, sir, there were nine!
“‘I guessed at once who the ninth was, and I shuddered a bit when I thought of brave, foolish Hardy here. For never a stroke could he swim, and his coming with us to-night was sheer madness—nay, more, it looked like suicide.
“‘Soon after Jack slid slowly up towards me, and his left arm clutched my right as I clutch yours now. Every one of us, sir, was stripped to the waist. Every one wore a lifebelt save Jack Hardy. He was a stowaway, and not in it.
“‘“Oh, boy,” I said, speaking in a whisper, “why have you done this?”