"Now own up, Ebbington. What was the real reason of this visit? For you know very well you're no more ill than I am."
He stared for a moment, and then seeing it would be useless arguing with me, said:
"No, I'm not ill, but I want to ask you a question. What does this woman intend doing with me? It's all very well for her to pretend she abducted you; I know better. You were in her confidence at Singapore and you're in it now. For Heaven's sake don't play with me—tell me the truth. Is she going to flog me as she flogged that poor devil this morning, or is she going to hang me, as I hear she did Kwong Fung the pirate?"
"I know no more about what she intends doing with you than you do," I answered; "and if I did, I'm certain I shouldn't tell you. Look here, Mr. Ebbington, I don't want to hit a man when he's down, but I must own, I think, whatever you do get won't be too much for you. You would have betrayed her, if you could have managed it, without a second thought. Now, if I had been in her place—well, I don't somehow think I should have been as merciful as she has been."
His face instantly became black with fury.
"Wouldn't you! wouldn't you?" he hissed; "spy, traitor, coward! wouldn't you? A fig for you and your thoughts."
I laughed; thereupon he walked up to me, and, with his features convulsed with rage, deliberately spat in my face. I knocked him down, and, having done so, picked him up and threw him outside into the saloon. I then locked my cabin door and went to bed.
I don't suppose, however, I had been asleep more than an hour before I was awakened by a loud hammering at my door. Thinking that the ship must be in danger, I sprang from my bunk and unlocked it as quickly as possible. On looking out I discovered Walworth and the officers' steward standing before me.
"What on earth is the matter?" I asked, I'm afraid a trifle irritably. "What on earth are you making all this row about?"
"Something's very much the matter," Walworth answered, taking my arm and drawing me along the saloon. "Ebbington's taken poison."