‘Why, man, consider the size of this island,’ I exclaimed; ‘a few strokes of the oars, the boat heading out, or to the eastwards, say, would suffice to send them clear of this pin’s-head of rock, and then once to leeward they’d blow away. But we need not trouble to speculate: I fear nobody has escaped but ourselves.’
Finn shook his head with a face of misery, putting down what he was eating and fixing his eyes, that had moistened on a sudden, on the rock he sat on.
‘How long will it be before we enter the ship?’ asked Lady Monson.
‘Oh, we shall all be aboard before sundown, I don’t doubt,’ said I.
‘Will you not have some signal ready in case a vessel pass?’ she demanded.
‘We’ll stack the materials for a bonfire, but there is much to be done meanwhile,’ said I.
I believed she would have addressed Cutbill or Finn rather than me, but for the downright insolence her disregard of my presence would have signified. No doubt she hated me for being her husband’s cousin, for joining in his chase of her, for having helped in the duel that cost the Colonel his life, for the part I had acted aboard the ‘’Liza Robbins,’ and for being a witness of her defeat and shame and humiliation. Yes, such a woman as Lady Monson would violently abhor a man for much less than this. Why should poor Wilfrid have been drowned and she spared? I remember thinking. The world would surely have been the better off for the saving of one honest heart out of the yacht’s forecastle than for Lady Monson’s deliverance. But reflections of this kind were absurdly ill-timed. I started from them on meeting Laura’s gaze pensively watching me, and then sprang to my feet to the perception of the overwhelming reality that confronted us all.
‘Come, lads,’ said I, ‘if you are sufficiently rested shall we turn to?’
They instantly rose; Johnson staggered on to his legs, but I told him to keep where he was.
‘You’ll be hearty again to-morrow,’ said I, ‘and we are strong enough to manage without you.’