‘Bring them into this brig and keep them in her till they confess, though I should have to sail about the world with them till the vessel goes to pieces,’ he answered.
‘Then you won’t settle upon that island?’
‘Not now—not yet awhile, not until I have received Messieurs Rotch and Nodder on board and dealt with them.’ He added: ‘I want time to think. My brain’s in a whirl. If Rotch hears that I’m the man who has charge of this brig, he’ll not come.’
‘Peter Green knows your name.’
‘I believe not. He has not called me by my name. Did he ask it below?’
‘Not in my hearing.’
‘Butler is no uncommon name, and I’m changed—too changed to be recognised by the scoundrel in any description of me Peter Green is capable of.’
‘But Corporal Glass may recollect you, Tom, and name the ship you arrived off the island in.’
‘That won’t help Rotch. He wouldn’t identify me as his man by hearing the name of a ship he’s not likely to have heard I sailed in.’ He looked at the island, and cried: ‘My scheme is wholly changed. But I have not yet formed a resolution. We’ll talk it over when the islanders are gone. Bates shall counsel me as well as you. Let me but get hold of them here, and by my heavenly Maker, Marian, they shall swing if they don’t sign a confession of my innocence.’
‘Tom, be calm now, dear. The islanders are leaving the cabin. Keep your feelings under. They stared at you at table. Here now may be God’s own gift of a chance to establish your innocence. Don’t risk it, don’t spoil it, by want of self-control.’