On their going out, Tom shut the door and locked it, then, catching me in his arms, called me by twenty caressing words and kissed and blessed me for my love and devotion. I cried and lost my self-control, and some time elapsed before we were composed enough to talk. He then spoke of the Arab Chief, and told me again how the conspiracy against him had been contrived. His face blackened and he turned motionless with wrath when he mentioned Rotch and the other. I see him now after he had said: ‘Marian, I swear by and before the great and just and merciful God of Heaven that I am as guiltless of the crime for which I am here as you, and that Rotch and Nodder——’ Then he stopped. He stood without a stir, his face blackened, and his eyes became enlarged and fixed. Nothing moved but his lips, which convulsively opened and shut. His expression was one of horror and dreadful rage.
I was terrified, and threw my arms round his neck and kissed him. He fetched two or three deep sighs, and picked his convict cap out of the upper bunk and fanned himself with it. He then quickly rallied, but turned as deadly pale as his looks had before been black and terrible, and held me by the hand a minute, watching me with a smile of heart-moving sadness. ‘But God will not suffer it! But God will not suffer it!’ he muttered brokenly; and a minute later, in a collected voice, he talked to me of his sufferings in the London jails, of what he had endured on board the hulk and in the dockyard.
I strove to bring him away from these maddening memories by speaking of myself, but I presently saw it did him good to let loose his thoughts.
Meanwhile, a second mob of convicts, attracted by the noise below, had come down into the steerage and were swelling the chorus of yells and oaths which the felons were roaring out. I heard a frequent splintering of wood, as though drawers and doors and lockers were being forced and smashed. The ruffians’ object, unless it were diabolic wantonness, I could not imagine; the cabins there were few. One was full of some kind of stores; then there was the pantry; the other berths were empty; maybe the villains beat and splintered the woodwork and did what injury they could with the tools they handled out of rage and spite at being baulked in their hunt for booty.
‘Do they mean to wreck the ship?’ said I. ‘Are they men or beasts? Listen to them!’
‘They’re beasts! Don’t I know! But why do they shout and roar? After the long discipline of silence, I could roar myself. It has made a devil of me.’
‘What you are, I am,’ said I.
He shook his head passionately, and said: ‘My business will be to get out of this ship with you quickly. They trust me, and their trust will be my opportunity. How long should I keep you in this ship of demons? There’s Bates and there’s young Johnstone. I have a scheme. The three of us are sailors.’
‘Are the convicts without any chiefs, without any head they are willing to own? If there’s no discipline, what must happen? They’ll get at the liquor; they’ll eat and waste the provisions; they’ll knock the ship to pieces and sink her. Is that the wretches’ idea of liberty?’
‘There are heads; Abram’s one. There are others I needn’t name. I’m supposed to be one, as taking charge of the ship. They’ll fall into some sort of order by-and-by. Many of them are not wholly beasts, and they’ll understand for their lives’ sake what’s wanted and what must be done. Marian, I had no hand in this business. They asked me if I’d navigate the ship if the prisoners seized her. I said yes, and that that would be my share in the outbreak. I’d do no more; I’d have no man’s blood upon my head. If they seized the ship, good and well; I’d navigate her to any agreed part of the world. Understand me, Marian, I am accountable for no life that has been lost to-day. What is that bundle?’