The address lasted about three-quarters of an hour. Captain Barrett replaced and let fall his eye-glass with impatience. A number of the convicts were now sent below, to return presently, as I supposed, when the others should have taken their allowance of exercise. I dared not linger, and walked slowly aft, sending searching looks at the prisoners, though I did not see Tom. How was I to deliver my letter? But it chanced that I had sight of many strange faces. A gang of prisoners passed close as I went toward the cuddy; a few were grey-haired men, bowed and wrinkled; some were young, and I marked that all these had defiant looks. One countenance, quickly as it passed, impressed me strongly; the man had fine, large, black, flashing eyes, and was a handsome, dark person, half a head taller than those who trudged near him; he held himself erect, and I seemed to notice a sort of theatrical air in his strides spite of the irons. I had heard someone say there was an actor among the felons, and I guessed that man was he.
CHAPTER XXIV
SHE ALARMS HER COUSIN
At the dinner-table that day most of the talk I caught concerned the convicts and the Australian settlements. Captain Barrett told the doctor that he considered his address to the prisoners deuced fine. The doctor bowed.
‘What makes criminals, sir?’ asked Captain Sutherland.
‘The dislike of honest labour,’ answered the doctor.
‘It’s the mothers who make the criminals,’ said the lieutenant.
The doctor viewed him sternly. I do not think he loved these discussions.
‘Don’t the magnetic character of an iron ship depend upon the direction of her head while building?’ said the lieutenant.