'I cannot tell,' said I, 'without a pair of compasses. I forgot to bring those measuring instruments with me. I will fetch them—I will be back among you in a few minutes.'
Helga, with a well-acted start and look of alarm, said: 'You must not leave me alone here! Let me fetch the box!'
'Very good,' said I.
She lightly gained the deck, but even while she was making for the hatch I was covering her retreat by noisily talking and demonstratively pointing, so that every man's attention was fixed upon me.
I held the corner of the chart, which Helga had pinned down with her fingers, while I spoke; the chart was stiff, and had not been often used, and when you let go it rolled itself up into a funnel. I perceived that my reference to the British ships of war at Simon's Bay had taken a hold upon the imagination of a few of the fellows, and while I seemed to wait for Helga I made the most of this by asking the men if they could tell me what vessels were on that station, if they knew how often and in what direction they cruised, and then I said:
'Suppose on our arrival at Mossel Bay we find an English frigate or corvette there? Men, have you thought of that? It is not because I am innocent of the blood of the Captain and the mate who were assassinated last night that I wish to be boarded by a lieutenant and a dozen English sailors from a man-of-war on our arrival, wherever it may be, or on the high seas. Can I be sure of proving my innocence if I am charged with having had a hand in this crime?' I cried, looking defiantly at Nakier, and raising my voice. 'Would you come forward and say that you and your men were guilty, and that I and the lady and the two Englishmen were innocent? You know you would not!' I thundered, heavily striking the chart a thump with my clenched fist. 'Why, then, do you want to sail past this Simon's Bay? Is not this side of the coast safer, freer from the risks of falling in with a ship of war, and nearer by many miles to Cape Town than Mossel Bay?'
'How much near?—how much near, boss?' cried the man who had already asked this question.
'Here!' said I. 'Hold down this corner of the chart, will you, while I call to Mr. Wise to bring me the box of instruments? Miss Nielsen cannot find the things. Wise put the box away, and knows where it is.'
I left the table and stood under the hatch a moment to address a word to Nakier in that wild mad spirit of defiance that will often in the timidest mock at peril in the most terrible instant of it.
'Make your men understand,' I cried, 'that if we fall in with a man-of-war, every soul of them stands to be hanged by the neck until he is dead!'