“How! Do you complain, and yet embrace your fetters?”
“I complain not.”
The governess eyed him closely; and, after a moment’s pause, she continued,—
“Is it usual to see such riotous conduct among the crew as we have this day witnessed?”
“It is not. You have little to fear from the people; he who brought them under knows how to keep them down.”
“They are enlisted by order of the King?”
“The King! Yes, he is surely a King who has no equal.”
“But they dared to threaten the life of Mr Wilder. Is a seaman, in a King’s ship, usually so bold?”
The boy glanced a look at Mrs Wyllys; as if he would say, he understood her affected ignorance of the character of the vessel, but again he chose to continue silent.
“Think you, Roderick,” continued the governess, who no longer deemed it necessary to pursue her covert inquiries on that particular subject; “think you, Roderick, that the Rov—that is, that Captain Heidegger will suffer us to land at the first port which offers?”