The boats, with the exception of the jollyboat, were all moored in a string at a distance of about a hundred yards from the beach, the longboat riding to a small boat anchor, while the others were secured to her by their painters, the jollyboat being hauled up on the sand. This was the boat that we intended to use to go off to the ship in, towing the other boats astern; and when we got alongside her, Gurney swung Grace Hartley’s box off his shoulder, intending to deposit it in the stern-sheets of the boat prior to launching her. As he leaned over the gunwale to do so, however, he started back with a smothered ejaculation, for at the same instant a human figure rose up out of the bottom of the boat, where it had been crouching. To drop the box on the sand was, with Gurney, the work of a second; and the next instant he had the man by the throat and was bearing him back into the bottom of the boat again, while Grace Hartley seized my arm and gripped it like a vice to prevent herself from screaming.
“Not a sound, for your life, Grace!” I hissed in her ear as I shook myself free from her grip. Then, springing to Gurney’s side, I exclaimed in a low, tense whisper:
“Steady, Gurney; steady, man! don’t kill the fellow, and don’t make a noise. Who is he? Let him get up and tell us who he is, and what he is doing here.”
“Do you hear what Mr Troubridge says?” growled Gurney in his prisoner’s ear. “Get up and give an account of yourself. But if you attempt to raise your voice I’ll choke the life out of you without more ado. Now then, let us have a look at you. Why, I’ll be shot if it isn’t Saunders!”
Saunders, it may be explained, was one of the original crew of the Mercury, and a very quiet, steady, well-conducted fellow. It was probably for that reason that he had not been chosen to go in the ship on her projected voyage to China.
I approached the man and stared in his face. Sure enough it was indeed Saunders; and a very scared as well as somewhat angry appearance he presented.
“Why, Saunders,” I exclaimed in low-pitched accents of surprise, “what are you doing here in the boat at this time of night? Come, explain yourself!”
“I will, Mr Troubridge, in half a jiffy, as soon as I’ve got the feel of Gurney’s grip out of my throat,” answered the man. “It’s like this, sir. I’ve been on this here island long enough to see that Wilde’s ideas won’t work. I can see that, accordin’ to his plan, I may stay here all my life and be no better off than I am to-day, ’cause why—the harder I and others like me works the better it is for a lot of lazy shirkin’ swabs, who’ve made up their minds that they’ll never do a hand’s turn if they can help it. And I don’t see no fun in workin’ for skowbanks like that. I’ve had about enough of it, and I wants to get away from this here place to somewheres where a man can get the full value of his labour. So I’ve kep’ my eye on you all day to-day, Mr Troubridge, on the lookout for a chance to ast you to let me stow myself away aboard the Mercury until she gets well out to sea, intendin’, you understand, sir, to cut and run at the first port that we touches at. But I couldn’t get the chance to speak to you without bein’ seen by them as I didn’t want to see me, so I follered you to-night when you started out for a walk—as I thought—intendin’ to range up alongside of you when we was well clear of the settlement. And afore I could arrange my thoughts shipshape, so’s to make clear what I wanted, you’d jined George here and the young lady, and I couldn’t help hearin’ pretty near all that was said. Now, sir, I understands that you and Gurney feels pretty much as I do about Wilde and his notions, and intends to give the lot of ’em the slip by makin’ off all alone by yourselves in the ship to-night. Ain’t that it, sir?”
“Well, supposing that we had any such plan, what have you to say about it?” I returned.
“Only this, sir,” answered Saunders, “that I begs you most earnestly to let me come in with you. It’s a stiff job, Mr Troubridge, for two people—for the young lady won’t count nothin’ to speak of—to work a ship the size of the Mercury, and you’d find me most uncommon useful, I assure ye, sir. I’m an A.B., and knows my business as well as e’er a man—”