‘There is a little breeze, and we are under way again,’ said he. ‘I wish it may hold. There is no telling what ship may fall in with the boats, and the quicker I can push the vessel out of these parts the better, though I must keep the tropic latitudes aboard to get away in,’ said he, softening his voice. ‘We shall need smooth water and fine weather, dear one, and God’s care. It may be done to-night. It may be done to-morrow night. All must be in readiness.’
I told him what I had just overheard.
‘Let them do what they like,’ said he. ‘This cabin’s ours, and by that I mean that it’s yours. I can rest anywhere whilst you sleep, and can take a nap here, if you like, when you are out of it.’
I was about to speak. He smiled, and silenced me with his hand.
‘Don’t you remember the lectures I used to give you? Let all things be as I wish. Will and poor Bates will be safely lodged. It cannot be for long. A night or two. Nay a week, if you will. But long it must not be,’ he added, with a note of passion. ‘Could I keep you in this ship? What have you already heard and seen? Oh, it is not fit! It is not fit! Such scum as they are! Such foul-mouthed hogs! When I think of what I used to suffer at night in the hulk—forced to listen, lying sleepless, though nearly dead with the awful toil of the day!’
Our talk then softly and swiftly ran on many matters which I shall not tease you with, such as what we should do if we came off with our lives in the gig; the surest and yet most convenient places in the world for Englishmen to hide themselves in; my plans as to the disposal of my house in London; the drawing of my money secretly, so that the law should not be able to get at him by finding out where I was. These things and the like we talked of whilst we sat hand in hand, and sometimes he would break off to kiss me and thank me for my love and loyalty and to admire me.
I asked him how the gig was to be secretly provisioned and got ready for lowering.
‘I have arranged for that,’ said he. ‘I told Abram awhile ago on the poop, and some dozens besides heard me, that it was my practice at sea to keep my boats provisioned and watered. I then rattled about our having but three boats, talked of the big number of souls aboard, and said that in a day or two, when things had settled down a bit, I’d hunt out the carpenters and handy workmen amongst the people and put them to making a number of rafts after a design of my own, so that in case of foundering no man need lose his life for the want of something to float on. This sort of talk pleased them mightily. Convicts set a high value on their lives. The bigger the rogue the bigger the price. And of all the people in this ship Barney Abram is the man who’d be the least willing to die, be his spirit what it will when he enters a ring. So then and there I told Mr. Bates that the boats were to be provisioned and watered the first thing to-morrow morning, and I turned to Will, who stood by, and significantly ordered him to take the gig under his own care and see to her.’
‘That was clever,’ said I, clapping his hand with mine.
‘The difficulty I foresee,’ he went on, ‘is the helmsman. Yet it is to be managed. I wish there was no moon this week; but, fair or foul, I must have you out of this ship of devils.’