“Well then, I can understand the hatred of these emigrants, whom you take on board like cattle and treat like negroes. They are absolutely certain that in case of danger they would be sacrificed!”
“But we should save them when their turn came.”
I glanced with horror at the man who was talking to me. He looked honest and straightforward and he evidently meant what he said. And so all these poor creatures who had been disappointed in life and badly treated by society would have no right to life until after we were saved—we, the more favoured ones! Oh, how I understood now the rascally-looking fellow, with his hatchet and tomahawk! How thoroughly I approved at that moment of the revolvers and the knives hidden in the belts. Yes, he was quite right, the tall, red-haired fellow. We want the first places, always the first places. And so we should have the first places in the water.
“Well, are you satisfied?” asked the captain, who was just coming out of his cabin. “Has it gone off all right?”
“Yes, captain,” I answered; “but I am horrified.”
Jouclas stepped back in surprise.
“Good Heavens, what has horrified you?” he asked.
“The way in which you treat your passengers——”
He tried to put in a word, but I continued:
“Why—you expose us in case of a shipwreck——”