I opened the door and followed Miss Temple out.
‘I am of opinion that he is not so mad as he appears,’ said I.
She averted her flushed face somewhat haughtily. No matter, thought I; it is a subject that will keep.
We got under the short awning on the poop and lounged away the morning there. Her good breeding speedily came to her rescue, and our chat was as easy, in a sense, as ever it could have been aboard the Indiaman—easier, i’ faith, by a long chalk! though it concerned troubles and anxieties which never could have occurred to us in the Countess Ida. I observed that Mr. Lush frequently directed his eyes at me as he paced the weather deck. To my accost he had satisfied himself with returning a surly ‘marning,’ and we spoke no more. He seemed unable to view me attentively enough to satisfy himself without growing offensive by staring.
‘I hope that fellow,’ I whispered to Miss Temple, ‘may not thwart my Rio programme. Yet I don’t see how he could do so. The barque wants a chiefmate, so the captain contends. It is no falsehood; the need would by all sailors be regarded as an imperative one. Still, I hate that surly fellow without exactly knowing why.’
‘Do you notice how those men yonder are constantly looking this way?’
‘Yes. As I have explained to you, Master Eavesdropper Wilkins has reported all he heard; and the Jacks understanding at last that their skipper is a madman, are wondering what on earth is going to happen next. They’ll be glad, you’ll find, to learn that we’re heading for Rio when the course is changed. They’ll report the skipper as insane, and end our difficulties out of hand for us.’
‘I hope so indeed!’ she sighed.
Well, for the rest of the day nothing happened worth relating. I took an observation with the captain, worked it out in his cabin, and made draughts of the two extraordinary documents. When we had calculated our situation, he went on deck, and by a tell-tale compass in his cabin I perceived that he had changed the barque’s course. Simultaneously with this, I heard the men bracing the yards more forward, and the heel of the barque slightly sharpened to the increased lateral pressure of the fresh breeze upon her canvas. I hastened on deck when I had done my copying to observe the crew’s deportment; but in the manner of the few men who were about I witnessed nothing to lead me to suppose that they made anything of this sudden change of course.
When I told Miss Temple that we were now heading as close as the wind would let us lie for the South American port she instantly grew animated; her eyes brightened, a look of hope and pleasure entered her face, and her voice was full of cheerfulness. The captain, on the other hand, grew gloomier as the day advanced. During his watch on deck from twelve to four he paced the planks without any intermission that I was sensible of, walking nearly always in the same posture, with his hands clasped behind him and his head bowed; and with his long black hair, yellow face, and blue gills he needed nothing but the dress of a monk to look one, rehearsing his part for the cloisters.