‘We’re a steering by the compass up above nor’-nor’-west,’ answered Lush; ‘will ye be pleased to tell us how ye make that right?’
I had to fetch a pair of parallel rulers to render my answer intelligible to the illiterate creatures who stood gaping at me with an expression of dull struggling perception that would come and go in a manner that must have moved me to laughter at another time.
‘What part of this here paper is the island wrote down upon?’ demanded Forrest.
I pointed with my ruler, and the whole knot of faces came together as they stooped with a sound as of a general snore arising from their vigorous breathing.
‘How far is it off from where we are?’ inquired one of the men. I told him. Several questions of a like kind were put to me; a growling ran amongst them as they hummed their comments into one another’s ears. Meanwhile, I stood inspecting them with mingled inquisitiveness and disgust. What a miserable pass had the wretches brought the girl and me to! What bitter anxieties had they overwhelmed us with! What was to be our future so far as they should have a share in the creation of it? I sought in vain amidst their various countenances, composed of hair and warts and beards, of leathery skins, of moist eyes dim with weather, of the smooth cheeks of two or three of the younger fellows—I sought in vain, I say, for a single expression to assure me of the existence of qualities upon whose generous response I might depend, should it ever come to my having to entreat them. Yet they presented, as I long ago said, just such exteriors as you would expect to meet with in the sailors of a humble trader like the Lady Blanche.
‘Well, men,’ exclaimed the carpenter, ‘there ain’t no doubt to my mind. It’s all right; and I’m bound to say stan’ing here, that con-sidering that Mr. Dugdale guv’ up the sea a good bit ago, he’s managed oncommonly well down to this here time.’
There was a murmur of assent. I thought I would take advantage of this momentary posture in them of appreciation, perhaps of concession.
‘Since you are all before me,’ said I, ‘two excepted, let me ask you a question. You are aware, of course, that from the very beginning of this business I have regarded your whole scheme as the effect of a madman’s dream.’
Lush stared at me with an iron face; Forrest, with an impudent grin, shook his head; two or three of the fellows smiled incredulously. I proceeded, eyeing them deliberately one after the other, and speaking in the most collected tones I could command.
‘I want to know this: If Captain Braine’s island should have no existence in fact, what do you men propose to do?’