‘You see now how it is? If I refused my assent to the crew’s wishes, they might have sent me adrift in a boat—alone.’ I added significantly.
‘He is a most dreadful creature. You spoke to him bravely. But is that manner what you call tact?’
‘Yes. The man must not imagine that I am afraid of him. I would that I could choke him with his own threats.’
‘I believe he would not shrink from murdering both of us.’
‘They have made up their minds to sail to the island, and they mean that I shall carry them there. That resolve was strong in them when they entered the cabin. If I had refused—— But no matter! It may yet come to my being able to induce them to speak a ship.’
She made no response. There was a short silence between us.
‘Make eight bells!’ I shouted, and the chimes floated sharp upon the rushing wind as I walked aft to the companion, Miss Temple always at my side.
I went straight to the captain’s cabin, and there worked out my observation, and fixed the correct position of the barque on the chart. The course she was steering happened to be the true direction she needed to take, and there was nothing to mend in that way. Miss Temple came to the table and watched me as I made my calculations. When I had come to an end, I asked her to remain where she was, and returned with the chart on deck. I beckoned to the carpenter, who was standing at the break of the poop, as though waiting for me to arrive that he might go forward to his dinner.
‘Here’s our situation to-day,’ I exclaimed pointing to the chart—it was a tract-chart of the world—‘and here’s Cape Horn. Our course then is as we’re steering.’
He stared at the chart with the blind and stupid look of a man who cannot read, and after a bit said: ‘Let’s see: here’s south, and here’s west, ain’t it? And here’s Cape Horn, as you say. Ay, our course is about right for it, I allow.’