‘I am certain,’ she cried, squeezing my arm in the energy of her emotion, ‘that he has some design in his mind to make you serve him. Why should he have teased you when we came, poor miserable creatures! fresh from the wreck, with inquiries about your knowledge of navigation? Oh, beware of him! He may not be quite mad, but he may be as wicked as the worst of his men.’
‘We must wait,’ said I, for her conjectures were quite reasonable enough to prove disturbing. ‘But after all,’ I cried, brightening up to the new idea that possessed me, ‘if we are to sail to the Mauritius with him’——
‘No!’ she exclaimed; ‘that is not to be dreamt of.’
‘Yet listen, I entreat you. If it is our uncomfortable doom to remain in this barque until she reaches her port, I do not know but that the captain would be very honestly in the right in expecting me to work my passage—that is to say, to help him by keeping a lookout, and by serving him in other ways which may be possible to me.’
‘Do not dream of sailing to the Mauritius!’ she cried impetuously; ‘we must either soon meet with the Indiaman or return home.’
I could not forbear a smile at her imperious we, as though whatever she did I must do.
‘Ay, that is what we want,’ I exclaimed; ‘but then if we don’t fall in with the Indiaman nor with a vessel homeward bound’——
‘Absurd! Dozens of ships are to be met with every day sailing home to England from some part or other of the world. The idea of remaining in this vessel is not to be entertained for an instant. It would be intolerable enough for me even to make the comparatively short passage home, destitute as I am of everything; but to leisurely proceed all the way to the Mauritius—— Oh, be very careful, Mr. Dugdale. I beg you not to know anything at all about navigation and the duties of a sailor.’
‘I can’t do that,’ I answered; ‘I have loaded my gun and must stick to it; but I promise you I will put no more shot in it.’
She eyed me with great impatience and warmth, as though provoked by my answer: but she held her peace, and presently our conversation went to other matters.