‘Seize the ship!’ he exclaimed with a little snort of contempt. ‘With a file of soldiers splendidly placed ready to fire amongst the devils as fast as they could load! With three sentries in addition to help! With officers and a crew ready to support the soldiers! But, hang me,’ said he, with a change of voice and peering close into my face to catch a sight of me, ‘if I don’t think you’re sorry the ship wasn’t seized!’
‘I wish you didn’t excuse the diabolical murder. I’d shoot that sentry with my own hand for killing a poor, unhappy madman goaded into insanity, for all you know, by an unjust sentence. It might have been Tom. Suppose Tom’s heart broke and his mind went? A soldier would shoot him!’
‘D’ye know you hiss when you talk? I used to like your spirit, but love is making a tigress of you. You make a fellow afraid?’
But I had not come to talk with him to do that. I wanted news, and he had none; and I had no idea of scaring or disgusting the dear lad by causing him to fancy that my sympathies were with the felons under hatches when I had a heart but for one man only in the whole world. Will was just the sort of lad to betray me that I might not come to harm or harm others; so, after laughing at his likening me to a tigress, I talked of Stepney and his father’s house near the Tower, and in a few minutes the pair of us were happy in old, kind, gentle memories.
He grew a little inquisitive presently, however, and asked me some questions.
‘Have you thought of what you mean to do when you arrive at Hobart Town?’
‘I shall be guided entirely by what is done with Tom,’ I answered.
‘Shall you settle in Tasmania?’
‘Somewhere in that part of the world,’ I said. ‘Once a convict, always a convict. I know Tom and his proud heart; if his innocence could be established on his arrival and liberty given to him, he’d not return home. He hates England—I’ll swear it. And I hate home for his sake.’
‘You’ll sell your house in Stepney, I suppose!’