“Who is it?” I asked, surprised at learning there was any one imprisoned on board the Lawrence.
“You should know, seeing that you had a hand in his capture,” the man replied surlily. “Why he wasn’t sent on shore instead of bein’ transferred to this brig, beats me.”
“When was he brought aboard?”
“The night after we crossed the bar, and before the fleet put across to the North Foreland.”
“Are we to carry him with us on this cruise?”
“You’ll have to ask the commodore for that information. I’m not supposed to know what he counts on doin’. It’s enough for me that I must fetch an’ carry for a gallows-bird like him.”
The man was in such an ill temper that it was useless to question him further, and I went to old Silas, as both Alec and I had come to believe was our right.
It was plain to be seen, when I put the first question, that Master Boyd could give much more information than he then seemed disposed to do.
He answered me almost curtly, never volunteering even an opinion, and this was so entirely contrary to his usual manner that my suspicions were aroused.
“It seems to me that Alec and I have the right to know what is being done with the man,” I said hotly. “We captured him without aid from any one, and yet it is forbidden us to know other than that he was put on board the Caledonia.”