Very lazily, I thought, he put the lid on the box of ingots, and, laughing at the others, he came aft with me. When I took up the chart to make a dead reckoning by the help of his own calculations during my watch off, he laughed again in his peculiar way. "It's all right," he said; "due west for Ascension, as you wished."
"Nicolson," I said, quietly, "you've been playing a fool's game; what does it mean?"
He sat on the gunnel and looked me full in the face.
"Means that our port is Ascension," he said.
I kept my temper.
"Nicolson," I said, "do you wish me to think you a scoundrel?"
"Think what you like; there are four in this launch who don't mean Joey Castle to touch these dollars again."
I turned away from him, wrestling with my temper.
"'Bout ship!" I cried. Barlow took no notice whatsoever. Then my hand went to my pistol-pocket and I knew the worst. They had taken the revolver while I slept. I was one against four, and the launch was running over a calm sea to Ascension Isle and the discovery which inevitably awaited us there.
III.