We did.
Hereupon the consul and captain exchanged glances; and the latter looked bitterly disappointed.
Presently I noticed Guy’s eye upon me; and, for the first time, he spoke, and told me to come near. I stepped forward.
“Was it not you that was taken off the island?”
“It was.”
“It was you then who owe your life to my humanity. Yet this is the gratitude of a sailor, Mr. Wilson!”
“Not so, sir.” And I at once gave him to understand that I was perfectly acquainted with his motives in sending a boat into the bay; his crew was reduced, and he merely wished to procure the sailor whom he expected to find there. The ship was the means of my deliverance, and no thanks to the benevolence of its captain.
Doctor Long Ghost also had a word to say. In two masterly sentences he summed up Captain Guy’s character, to the complete satisfaction of every seaman present.
Matters were now growing serious; especially as the sailors became riotous, and talked about taking the consul and the captain back to the Calabooza with them.
The other judges fidgeted, and loudly commanded silence. It was at length restored; when Wilson, for the last time addressing us, said something more about the Rose and Sydney, and concluded by reminding us that a week would elapse ere the Julia sailed.