‘You must sail to some place where you’ll be safe,’ continued the mate. ‘I owe you my life, and with your leave I’ll stick to you till I see you safe. We’re brother-sailors, Butler. I know what’s expected of me, and I know my own heart.’
‘Mr. Bates, I thank you,’ said I.
‘It won’t be human to carry you where I shall wish to go!’ exclaimed Tom. ‘They’ll get news of the convict ship at home, and your wife will think you dead. And, then, here’s Johnstone.’ He placed his hand upon the lad’s shoulder. ‘Must I carry him about with me till I’ve fixed a spot? He’s got a good home and fond parents. And then there’s his calling. Why, what kind of a precious outlook is this sort of thing for man, boy, or beast?’ he exclaimed, with a sneer.
‘It’s seeing the world,’ said Will.
Tom laughed, but with no face of merriment.
‘What place is in your mind, Butler?’ said the mate.
My sweetheart made no answer; his eyes were fixed upon me. Bates repeated his question, and still Tom gazed at me in silence.
‘Marian,’ said he presently, ‘you are with me, dearest. Is it your wish to remain with me?’
‘Where you go I must go, if you would not break my heart.’
‘What’s there to prevent your living in England, Captain Butler?’ here interrupted Will. ‘Aren’t there wilds and solitudes in England in which a man could burrow as secretly as in the loneliest island in the ocean?’