“Of course,” assented Leslie, “you could not have avoided noticing it. It was after that occurrence that I remonstrated with him; and for a few days thereafter he was better. Then he began again, finally giving way altogether, with the melancholy result that you have all witnessed. I knew how injurious to his interests it would be, and how seriously it would weaken discipline if you men should once come to understand that your skipper was a drunkard; so I let it be understood among you that Mr Purchas was confined to his cabin through a slight illness; while, as a matter of fact, he was all the time lying there in a drunken stupor.
“Now, when it is too late, I feel that I committed an error of judgment in attempting to conceal from you all the actual facts. Instead of being so keenly anxious to shield him that I could think of nothing else, I ought to have anticipated the possibility that upon his return to consciousness he might be tempted to do something foolish; and, anticipating this, I ought to have told off a man from each watch to sit with and keep an eye upon him.”
“Ay,” observed the carpenter, “it might ha’ been a good thing to ha’ done that, certingly. But you haven’t got nothin’ to reproach yourself with, sir; you done what you did with a good and kind intention; and you wasn’t to know that the fust thing he’d do when he come back to his senses ’d be to up and jump overboard. Oh no, sir, you ain’t to blame in noways for what’s happened. What do you say, bullies?”
“No, no; in course the gen’leman ain’t to blame; nobody what’s seen how the land lay—like we have—and how Mr Leslie have been a-doin’ all he could to help the skipper, could ever say as he’s any way to blame. Not he!” answered one and another of the men, each of them in one way or another endorsing the carpenter’s verdict.
“Thank you, men,” returned Leslie; “it is a great relief to me to feel that you think as you do in this matter. Now, that being disposed of, there is a further point to be considered; and it is this. The shocking fate of Mr Purchas leaves us with no navigator on board save myself. I have no great desire to proceed in this brig all the way to Valparaiso; but, nevertheless, there are reasons that, to me, seem to make it desirable that I should do so. I may tell you that we are now very near the Line; so near, indeed, that we may fall in with other craft, aiming to cross it at the same point as ourselves, at any moment. Now if we should fall in with a ship, would you wish me to communicate with her and ask her captain to place a navigating officer on board this brig, to take her to Valparaiso; or would you prefer that I should take charge—with Chips, here, as mate—and navigate you to Valparaiso myself?”
“Speakin’ for myself,” answered the carpenter, promptly, “I don’t want nobody better’n what you are, Mr Leslie, in command of this here hooker. We knows you, sir; and we’ve seen what you can do—we’ve took your measure, sir—if you’ll forgive the liberty of my plain speakin’—and we’re all agreed as you’re a prime seaman—one o’ the best as I’ve ever sailed under—and I’d a precious sight sooner see you in command than what I would a stranger. And, if I ain’t mistook, that’s the feelin’ with all hands of us. Am I right, mates, or ain’t I?”
“Right you are, Chips; no stranger for me.”
“Mr Leslie’s the skipper for us; we don’t want nobody else.” Thus, and in similar terms, the entire crew expressed their perfect agreement with the view enunciated by the carpenter; and there and then the matter was settled.
It was with a very considerable amount of trepidation that, next morning, Leslie undertook the task of communicating to Miss Trevor the news of Purchas’s death—taking care to suppress the full horror of the tragedy by simply stating that the unfortunate fellow had committed suicide by jumping overboard, omitting all mention of the shark. But although the girl was naturally much shocked at the occurrence of a second death on board, following so quickly upon that of Potter, this was the full extent of her emotion; Purchas was not at all the sort of man to appeal to her or to arouse in her any sort of interest or feeling beyond that of disgust at his weakness in surrendering himself to the seduction of so degrading a vice as that of drink; and she received the information quite calmly, much to her companion’s relief.
Meanwhile, and quite contrary to expectation, the breeze again freshened an hour or so before sunrise, with the result that when Leslie took his observation at noon he found that the brig was within a mile of crossing the equator. And, what was a much more remarkable circumstance, the horizon was still absolutely bare, not a single sail of any description being in sight, even from the main royal-yard!