The man came off the poop by way of the quarter-deck and entered the cabin with his skin cap in hand.
‘I obsarve,’ said he, ‘that you’ve altered the vessel’s course.’
‘That is so,’ I rejoined. ‘Wetherly was on deck when I left my cabin after working out my sights, and I believed he would have reported the change of course to you.’
‘No; it was Woodward [one of the sailors] that was at the hellum. He calls me over and points into the binnacle and says: “Ye see what’s happened?” The men ‘ud be glad to know if it’s all right?’
‘If what is all right?’
‘Why, if this here course is true for the island? They’ll feel obliged if ye’ll let ’em in here and show ’em the chart and ‘splain the distance and the course and the likes of that to ’em yourself.’
I hardly required him to inform me of their wishes, for I had but to direct my glance at the cabin door to observe them assembled on the quarter-deck awaiting the invitation the carpenter had come to demand; all hands of them, saving Wetherly and the fellow that was steering, called Woodward by Lush.
‘Certainly: let them enter,’ said I; and at once fetched my chart, which I placed upon the table, and went to the other side, ruler in hand, ready to point and to explain.
The body of rough men, a few of them with their mahogany lineaments scarcely visible amidst the whiskers, eyebrows, and falls of front hair which obscured their countenances, stood looking upon the chart with Lush in the thick of them, and Forrest’s mutinous, daredevil, rolling face conspicuous over the carpenter’s shoulder.
‘Now, men, what is it you want to know?’ said I.