I noticed a cautious pause in him.
‘Mr. Dugdale,’ he answered, ‘I’m heartily consarned for you, and for the lady too, and I may say particularly for the lady, who seems to me to be a born princess, a sight too good for such quarters as them’—he pointed to the skylight with a shadowy hand—‘with naught but a dead man’s clothes to keep her warm. If I could be of sarvice to ye, I would; but I’ve got to be as careful as you. Mr. Lush has such a hold upon the minds of the crew that there’s nothen he couldn’t get ’em to do, I believe; and if he should come to suspect that there’s anything ’twixt you and me, any sort of confidence that aint direct in the interests of the fo’c’sle, it ‘ud go as hard with me as I may tell ‘ee it certainly would with you if you was to play ’em false.’
This speech he delivered in a low key, with frequent glances aft and at the quarter-deck below. I listened with patience, though he told me nothing that I was not fully aware of.
‘But what course, Wetherly, do you think these men will adopt if on our arrival at the latitude and longitude named by that unhappy madman as the spot where his treasure lies, there should be no island?’
‘Well, sir,’ he responded, preserving his cautious tone, ‘I can answer that question, for it’s formed a part of the consultations the crew is agin and agin a-holding. They’ll think ye’ve dished ’em, and that o’ purpose you han’t steered a true course.’
‘Ha!’ I exclaimed; ‘and what then?’
‘You’ll have to find the island, sir.’
‘But, my God, Wetherly, if it be not there! There is no rock marked on the chart in the place that was named by Captain Braine.’
‘They’ll keep ye a-hunting for it,’ said he grimly.
‘And if we don’t find it?’