So the man went off in my wherry; and the Thames men tried to make poor Barney a little more comfortable, while I undid his waistcoat, hoping to stop the bleeding.
'It ain't no use,' he said; but in that short time his voice was almost gone, and we could tell that he was dying. 'I'm done for, Mr Nickham. If there's a reward, you'll act fair and square, I know; you always was a gentleman—let my sister have'—— And with that he gave a gasp, and was dead.
I rose up, dreadfully vexed for the poor chap. The sergeant and one of his men were looking after the skipper, when I felt myself touched on the arm.
'I say, sir,' said the boatman, 'when I'm in for a thing, I go through with it honourable. Did you know as you was followed?'
'Followed? no!' I said.
'I thought we was!' said Peter Tilley.
'We was followed, sir, by a light wherry with two people in it,' continues the boatman; 'and when they see our boats, they held hard; and as you all boarded the ship and the noise began, they rowed away as hard as they could go.'
'Which way did they go?' I said.
'Down river,' says the man. 'But it's of no use thinking of looking after them now. They are ashore long afore this.'
This was likely enough; and it was quite certain that Mr Edmund Byrle was one of the two in the boat, and I had lost him for the present. Well, it couldn't be helped; so we set to work to question the men and search the ship, till the doctor came. The men knew nothing more about the business than that they were going to have two passengers, a lady and a gentleman, this voyage. One of the Thames men understood Dutch, or we should not have heard even this scrap of information. The sulky boatman never uttered a word, except that once he said as I passed him, and he said it with a bitter curse: 'I always had my doubts of you.'