The wind was light; and there seemed every probability that we should make a long passage. So much the better, I thought. While we were at sea I was in good spirits, for I knew that there was a good chance of the brig being recaptured. Larry kept the crew alive with his fiddle forward, and even Dan Hoolan looked somewhat less surly than usual; at the same time Larry kept out of his way, and never trusted himself at night on deck when I was not there. Whether he was right in his suspicions or not was uncertain, but at all events Hoolan was a ruffian, and a traitor to his country.
I treated Larry as, of course, an officer does not usually treat an ordinary seaman. He was one night walking the deck with me, and we were talking of Ballinahone and our early days, when he suddenly said, “Shure, Mr Terence, there’s something on your mind. I’ve thought so more than once. Just say now what it is.”
“You are clever, Larry, to find that out,” I answered. “It’s your love for me enables you to do it. It’s nothing you would think much about. I’m troubled with the thoughts that we are carrying despatches to the French admiral, which, if delivered, may cause some serious injury to our country. They are kept in the drawer of the cabin table, and I might at any moment throw them overboard, and defeat the Frenchmen’s object.”
The moment I said this I regretted it, as it struck me that it was like instigating Larry to do what I would not do myself. The effect on him was what I supposed my words would produce, for he at once replied, “Thin, shure, overboard they go before the world’s many hours older.”
“No, no, Larry! you mistake me,” I exclaimed. “That’s just what I don’t want you to do. If it has to be done, I’ll do it myself, and I forbid you to touch the packet I insist on your promising me that you will not.”
Very unwillingly Larry gave the promise, and I knew that I could trust him. I then let the subject drop, regretting that I had broached it to my faithful follower.
“If the Frenchman choose to hang me, I will not bring the same fate on him,” I thought.