CHAPTER V.
A CONFERENCE.
There was now a pause. How am I to convey the dramatic character of thisinterval of silence? The hush of the night worked like a spirit in thevessel, and the silence seemed to be deepened rather than disturbed bythe dull, pinion-like beat of the mainsail swinging into the mast, bythe occasional creak breaking forth from some slightly strainedbulkhead, and by the half-muffled gurgling of some little lift of darkwater laving the barque's side. I could witness no temper in the men.Wherever there lay a scowl, it was no more than a part of the creature'smake. Their faces were by this time familiar to me, and I could notmistake. Custom had even diminished something of the fierceness, and Imay say the hideousness, of the lemon-coloured man, whose corrugatedbrow and savage eyes had been among the earliest details of this ship toattract my attention on boarding her. Yet with the memory in me of whathad just now been enacted--with thoughts in me of two corpses scarcelyyet cold sinking, still sinking, at but a little distance from thevessel--these men opposed a horribly formidable array of countenances tothe gaze. Their various dyes of complexion were deepened by the lanternlight; the grotesque character of their attire seemed to intensify theirtragic appearance. Their figures were as motionless as though they wereacting a part as statues in a stage representation. At intervals one oranother would look to right or left, but in the main their eyes weredirected our way, and were chiefly fixed upon Helga.
Jacob stared as though in a dream; Abraham, with his under-jaw hangingloose, appeared to be fascinated by Nakier. I longed to plunge into thissilence, so to speak, to expend in speech and questions the emotionswhich were keeping my heart fiercely beating; but I was held dumb by thenotion that this stillness was a part of the solemnities which were tobe employed for the protection of our lives.
Punmeamootty re-entered the cuddy holding a book. Nakier took it fromhim, and, coming round to us, said:
'Look, lady! look, sah! You see dis is de Koran'--I observed that hesometimes said _de_ and sometimes _the_--'it is our religion. We swearupon it. Look, to make sure!'
I received the volume, and examined it. It was a manuscript, bound inleather, with a flap, and very elegantly ornamented on the sides andback with some sort of devices in gold and colour. The writing was inred, and every page was margined with a finely ruled red line. Whattongue it was written in I could not, of course, tell. I have sincesupposed it was in Arabic; but for us it might as well have been theTalmud as the Koran. I returned the book to Nakier.
'It is allee right, you see, sah,' he exclaimed, showing his wonderfullywhite teeth in a smile of gentle, respectful congratulation that put adeeper glow into his eyes and gave a new beauty to his handsomefeatures.
'It may be the Koran,' said I. 'I cannot tell. I will take your word.'
He turned to the men, and, with a passionate gesticulation, addressedthem; on which they shouted out all as one man:
'Yaas! yaas! Al-Koran! Al-Koran!'--nodding and pointing and writhing andworking with excess of Asiatic contortion.
'We are quite content,' said I.
Nakier withdrew to his end of the table, carrying the book with him. Hestood erect, blending the grace of a reposing dancer with an air ofreserved eagerness and enthusiasm.
'Lady and you, sah!' he exclaimed, while every dusky eye along the tablewas fixed intently upon him, 'you sabbee why we kill de Capt'n andMisser Jones? Them two bad men--them two wicked, shocking men. Theywould make we poor Mussulmans sin, and would send we to hell. And why?Dey not care at heart our soul for to save. We came here for work: wegib dem _dis_ for dere money'--he elevated his clenched hands, and thengesticulated as though he pulled and hauled--'not dis, which isAllah's,' striking his breast vehemently; by which, I presume, hesignified his spirit or conscience.
A rumbling murmur ran round the table. I should not have supposed thefellows understood the man; but acquiescence was strong in every tawnyface, and a universal nod followed when he struck his bosom.
'We not all Malay,' he continued, 'but we are all men, lady. We habfeeling--we hab hunger; we drink and cry and laugh like you all who arewhite and do not believe in de Prophet. We have killed dose two shockingwicked men, and we are not sorry. No; it is justice!' he added, with asudden piercing rise in his melodious voice, and a flush of the eye thatwas emphasized somewhat alarmingly by an unconscious clutch of his handat the empty sheath strapped to his hip. But his manner instantlysoftened, and his voice sweetened again, though his behaviour seemed,while it lasted, to exercise an almost electrical influence over hispeople. They fluttered and swayed to it like ears of wheat brushed by awind, darting looks at one another and at us. But this ceased on Nakierresuming his former air.
'Dis ship,' said he, 'is boun' to Table Bay. Some of us belong to CapeTown. Allee want to get to Afric, and dem as not belong to Cape Township for dere own country. But dis ship must not steer for Cape Town.When we arrive, it is asked, "Where is de Capt'n? Where is MisserJones?" and we must not tell,' said he, smiling.
'But where do you wish to go, then?' said I, almost oppressed by thesudden simultaneous turning of the men's dark fiery eyes upon me.
'Near to Cape Town,' said he.
'But what do you call near to Cape Town?' I asked.
'Oh, dere will be a river--we find him. We anchor and go ashore andwalkee, walkee,' he exclaimed.
Helga gave a little start.
'What you and your mates wants is that we should put ye ashoresomewhere?' said Abraham.
'Yaas, dat's so,' called the fellow named Pallunappachelly.
'No, no!' cried Nakier, 'not somewhere, Misser Vise. Near Cape Town, Isay. Not too far for we to walkee.'
'But to set ye ashore, anyhow?' exclaimed Abraham.
The man nodded.
'I suppose you know, Nakier,' said I, with a sense of dismay pressinglike a weight upon my spirits, 'that this young lady and I wish toreturn home? The Captain refused to part with us--he insisted oncarrying us with him--we have a home to return to. Surely you do notintend that we should make the passage to the Cape in this barque?'
'Who will navigate de ship?' said Nakier.
'Why, Mr. Wise will,' I exclaimed, turning upon the boatman.
'Blowed, then, if I dew!' cried Abraham, recoiling. 'What! along withthese--arter what's--'soides, I don't know nothen about longitude.'
'For mercy's sake, man, don't talk like that!' cried I. 'Miss Nielsenand I must be transhipped.'
'So must Oi!' said Abraham.
'And Oi!' hoarsely shouted Jacob.
'What ees it you say?' exclaimed Nakier, smiling.
'Why, that we all of us wish to get aboard another vessel,' said I, 'andleave this barque in your hands to do whatever you like with.'
There was a sharp muttering of 'No, no!' with some fierce shaking ofheads on either side the table. Nakier made a commanding gesture anduttered a few words in his own tongue.
'We must not speakee any ship, lady, and you, sah, and you, Misser Vise,and Jacob, my mate. Cannot you tell why?'
'If you're going to keep us here for fear of our peaching,' criedAbraham, 'there's me for wan as is ready to take moy oath that I'll saynothen about what's happened, purwiding you safely set us aboard anotherwessel.'
Nakier strained his ear, with a puzzled face. The language of Deal washappily unintelligible to him, for which I was exceedingly grateful,since nothing could be more imperilling than such talk as this.
Helga, who all this while remained silent, seated in her chair, withoutlifting her eyes to my face or turning her head, said softly, in littlemore than a whisper, so that only I, who stood at her shoulder, couldcatch her accents:
'You can see by their faces that they are resolved. All this has beenpreconcerted. Their plans are formed, and they mean to have their way.We must seem to consent. Let us agree, that they may take the oath,otherwise our lives are not worth more than the Captain's or themate's.'
Nakier's glowing eyes were upon her, but, though the movements of herlips might have been visible,
it would seem to them as though shewhispered to herself. The conviction that she was absolutely right inher advice came to me with her words. I needed but to glance at thedouble line of determined faces to gather that argument, that evenhesitation would merely result in speedily enraging the fellows; thatthey were not to be influenced by the most reasonable of our wishes;that our lives had been spared in order that we should convey them to aplace of safety; and this, too, I saw with the help of the illuminationsupplied by Helga's few words--that, fully believing the girl qualifiedto navigate the vessel, they might, if we provoked them, destroy thethree of us and retain her, counting upon their threats and hersituation to achieve their ends.
I said in a hurried aside to the boatmen:
'Not a word now, from either of you! This must be left to _me_! If youinterfere, your blood will be on your own heads!'
Then, addressing Nakier:
'Your demands are these: the barque is to be navigated to some part ofthe South African coast lying near to Table Bay?'
'Yaas, sah!' he answered, holding up one finger as though counting.
'The spot you wish to arrive at will have to be pointed out on thechart.'
Up went a second finger, followed by another 'Yaas, sah!'
'We are not to communicate with passing ships?'
'Right, sah!' he added, nodding and smiling, and raising a third finger.
'And then?' said I.
'Den,' said he, 'you swear to do dis and we swear by de Koran to betrue, and to serve you, and be your friend.'
'And if we refuse?' said I.
'Do not say it!' he cried, sweeping his hands forward as though to repelthe idea.
'There must be other conditions!' said I, talking with an air ofresolution which, I fear, was but poorly simulated. 'First as to theaccommodation?'
'I do not understand!' said Nakier.
'I mean, where are we to live?' I cried.
'Oh, here! oh, here!' he shouted, motioning round the cuddy; 'dis isyour room. No man of us come here.'
'And here I stop, tew,' said Abraham. 'No more of your forecastle forme, mates!'
'Nor for me!' rumbled Jacob.
'Do not say so!' exclaimed Helga, turning hastily to address them. 'Beadvised. Do not interfere. Let Mr. Tregarthen have his way.'
'And I suppose,' I continued, running my eyes over the rows of facestill they settled on Nakier, 'that we shall be waited upon as usual, andthat we shall be as well cared for as when Captain Bunting was alive?'
'Yaas, sah! yaas, sah!' said Nakier demonstratively, and Punmeamoottyshouted:
'Me wait allee same upon you and de sweet lady. Me sabbee what you like.Me get dem room ready,' pointing to the mate's and the Captain's cabins.
I shook my head with a shudder, then said softly to Helga, whose gazewas bent on the table:
'Can you suggest anything further for me to say to them?'
'Nothing. Get them to take their oath.'
'Nakier,' I exclaimed, 'we consent to your proposals. Among us we willnavigate this ship for you. But first you and your mates will swear bythat Koran in which you believe--I suppose it _is_ the Koran----'
'Oh, yaas, yaas!' he cried, and there was a general chorus of 'yaases.'
'You must swear by that sacred book of yours not to harm us; to be ourfriends; to serve us and do our bidding as though we were the officersof this ship. Explain this to your men, and let them take the oath intheir and your country's fashion, and we shall be satisfied.'
On this he addressed them. I hear now his melodious voice and witnesshis animated handsome face as he poured forth his rich unintelligiblesyllables. It was difficult to look at the fellow and not believe thathe was some prince of his own nation. There was nothing in his scarecrowclothes to impair the dignity of his mien and the grace of his motions.I could conceive of him as a species of man-serpent capable offascinating and paralyzing with his marvellous eyes, holding his victimmotionless till he should choose to strike. His influence over theothers was manifestly supreme, and I had no doubt whatever that thetragedy which had been enacted was his, and wholly his, by the claim ofcreation and command. While he talked I would here and there mark adingy face with a look of expostulation in it. The lamp swinging fairlyover the table yielded light enough to reveal expressions. When he hadceased there was a little hubbub of voices, a running growl so to speakof discontent. One cried out to him, and then another, and then a third,but in notes of expostulation rather than temper.
Helga, without turning her head, said to me:
'I expect they wish us to swear too. Your bare assurance does notsatisfy them.'
The guess seemed a shrewd one, and highly probable, but the men's talkwas sheer Hebrew to the four of us. Nakier listened, darting looks fromside to side, then suddenly lifted both his hands in the most dramaticposture of denunciation that could be imagined, and hissed some word tothem, whereupon every man fell as silent as though he had been shot. Hepicked up the volume and extended it to the fellow next him.
'Takee, takee,' he cried, speaking that we might understand. 'Lady, andyou, sah, Misser Vise and Jacob my mate, this is the Mussulman oath wemen now take. I speak not well your language, but dis is my speech inEnglish of what you shall hear.' Then, composing his countenance andturning up his eyes till nothing gleamed but the whites of them in hisdark visage, he exclaimed in a profoundly devotional tone and in accentsas melodious as singing:
'In de name of Allah de most merciful, and de good Lord of all things,if break dis oath do I, den, O Allah, may I go to hell!'
He paused, then turned to the man who held the volume, who forthwithheld the book at arm's length above his head and pronounced in hisnative tongue what we might suppose the oath that Nakier had essayed tomake English of. This done, the book was handed to the next man, and soit went round, all in dead silence, broken only by the strange, wildlysolemn accents of the oath-taker, and I noticed that the glittering eyesof Nakier rested upon every man as he swore, as though he constrainedhim to take the vow by his gaze.
Abraham and his mate looked on with open mouths, breathing deeply. Thebook came to Nakier. He was about to lift it, paused, and spoke to thefierce-looking fellow that was called Ong-Kew-Ho, who immediately glidedout of the cabin--none of these men seemed to walk: the motion of theirlegs resembled that of skaters. I was wondering what was to happen next,when the fellow who had been stationed at the wheel arrived. Nakieraddressed him. Immediately he extended his arms and levelled hisforefingers at us as the others had; then elevated the book and recitedthe oath.
'All this looks very honest,' I whispered to Helga.
Then Nakier took the oath, handed the volume to a man, and saidsomething. Instantly every man's arms were pointed at us, with the indexfingers touching, and a minute later all the men, saving Nakier, hadquitted the cabin.
'You see, lady, it is allee right,' said he, smiling.
'Yes, we are satisfied,' she exclaimed, rising from her chair; but hereye caught the stain on the deck; an expression of horror worked in herface like a spasm, and she brought her hand to her breast with ahalf-stifled exclamation.
'When day come,' said Nakier, addressing Helga, 'we look at de chart andfind out de place for you to steer we to.'
His bearing was still full of Eastern grace and courtesy. No expressionentered his face to deform its beauty; yet somehow I seemed sensible ofa subtle spirit or quality of command in the fellow, as though he wasnow disguising his sense of power and possession with difficulty. It wasclear that he looked to Helga mainly, if not wholly, for what was to bedone for them.
'You shall point out the spot you have in your mind,' said she.
'You sabbee navigation, sweet lady?'
'Among us,' she answered, with a motion of her hand that comprehendedthe two boatmen and myself, 'we shall be able to do all you require.'
He made a sort of salaam to her, and said, looking at Abraham: 'Who keepde watch?'
'Whose watch on deck is it?' I asked.
'The starboar
d's--moine,' answered Abraham, with an uneasy shuffling ofhis feet.
'Allee right, Mr. Vise; allee right! It is veree fine night. I go now tosleep,' said Nakier; and he went in his sliding, spirit-like fashion tothe cuddy-door, and vanished in the blackness on the quarter-deck.
The four of us stood grouped at the head of that little table, staringat one another. Now that the coloured crew were gone, a sense of theunreality of what had happened possessed me. It was like starting from anightmare, with the reason in one slowly dominating the horror raised bythe hideous phantasmagoria of sleep.
'We must not seem to be standing here as though we were planning andplotting,' exclaimed Helga. 'Dark figures out in that shadow there arewatching us.'
'That's right enough, miss,' said Abraham; 'but what's to be done?'
'Here stands a man,' cried Jacob hotly, striking his breast, 'as dorn'tmean for to be carried to the Cape in a bloomin' wessel full o' bloodysavages; and that's speaking straight!'
'Hush!' cried I. 'Soften those leather lungs of yours, will you?'
'Ain't there no firearms knocking about?' said Abraham.
'I hope not,' said Helga; 'we shall be able to manage without firearms!'
'What is in your mind?'
'An idea not yet formed,' she answered. 'Give me time to think. Ibelieve that not only are our lives to be saved, but the vessel too!'
'Ha!' cried Abraham, with a thirsty look. 'It needs a sailor's lass toget such a fancy as that into her head! I'm a Cockney if I don't seem tosee a salwage job here!'
But Jacob was staring at us gloomily.
'What I says is this,' he exclaimed, addressing us with his fistsclenched: 'Here be three Englishmen and a gal with the heart of two menin her'--'Softly,' I interposed--'with the heart of two men in her,' hecontinued, with a shake of his fist; 'and what's forward? He-leven wispsof coloured yarn! He-leven heffigies with backbones separately to bebroke like this!' He crooked his knee, and made as if he were breakinga stick across it. 'Are we,' he cried, with the blood mounting to hisface and an expression of wrath sparkling in his eyes, 'are wefower--three men and a young lady--to quietly sit down and wait to bemurdered? or are we to handle 'em as if they was a pack of apes, to beswept below and smothered under hatches as a breeze o' wind 'ud blow acoil of smoke along?'
'Lower your voice, man!' I whispered. 'What do you want?--to court thedeath that you bolted aloft to escape?'
'What's to prevent us,' he continued, muffling his tone, though thefierceness of his temper hissed in every breath he expelled--'what's toprevent us a-doing this? More than the watch are below; three or fowermay be on deck. Ain't the scuttle forrards to be clapped down over theforecastle, where they lie safe as if they was at the bottom of a well ahundred foot deep? Ain't that to be done? And if the three or fowerthat's knocking about on deck aren't to be handled by us threemen--good-noight!'
He rounded his back upon us in sheer contempt of passion.
'We may do better than that,' said Helga.
'You're for supposing that they ain't going to keep a bright look-out,mate,' said Abraham. 'See here! What good's to be done, these here handsyou'll find equal to,' smiting first his left, then his right knuckles;'but s'elp me Moses I'm not here to be killed. Them chaps are bornknife-stickers. Touch one, and you're groaning at your length on deck,with a mortal wound in your witals. And if what we do ain't complete--ifso be they're wan too many for us--and it's eleven to three, remember_that_, mate--what's to happen? Ask yourself the question! For thelady's sake, I'm for caution.'
'We must not remain debating here,' said I. 'They believe us sincere.There are eyes watching us, as Miss Nielsen says. This holding a councilis not going to reassure them. If you object to keeping a look-out,Abraham, I'll take charge.'
'I will keep you company,' said Helga.
'No, no!' cried Abraham. 'It's moy watch, and Oi'll keep it.'
He went clumsily, and with a bewildered manner, to the companion-steps.
'I'll remain along wi' ye, Abey,' said Jacob. 'Arter what I saw, as Istood at the wheel--the poor chap's cry--the way they chucked himoverboard----' He buried his eyes in his coat-sleeve. 'The cussedmurderers!' he exclaimed, lifting his face, and looking savagely around.
'Come!' cried Abraham, 'if ye _mean_ to come! What's your temper agoingto do for us?'
'I'll relieve you at four o'clock,' said I, looking at the timepiece,the hands of which stood at a quarter before two.
The men went on deck, and turning down the lamp--for the revelation ofthe light served as a violent irritant to the nerves on top of the fancyof the secret, fiery-eyed observation of us without--I seated myselfbeside Helga on a locker to whisper and to think.
The girl and I had passed through some evil, dark, and dangerous hourssince we first came together in that furious Saturday night's gale; butnever was the worst of them all comparable to this middle-watch throughwhich we sat, for hard upon two hours of it, in gloom, in the oceansilence that lay upon the barque, imagining the movement of dark shapesin the blackness that came like a wall to the cabin-door, and the gleamof swiftly receding eyes peering at us through the cabin skylight.Regularly through the stillness sounded the combined tread of Abrahamand his mate, over our heads, with sometimes a halt that almost startledthe ear, while we could clearly catch the grumbling growling of theirconversation as they passed the skylight on their way to and fro.
Yet, strangely enough--I am speaking for myself--the horror of thedouble assassination did not lie upon my spirit with the deadeningweight I should have imagined as the effect of so shocking, sudden, andbloody a tragedy. That which might have been acute horror was subduedinto little more than a dull and sickening consternation by perceptionof our own peril. Yet I would look at those berths lying on either sidethe cuddy front, as though from either one or the other of them thefigure of the Captain or his mate must stalk! The stain upon thecabin-deck lay black as ink against the Captain's door. To think that_that_ was all of him his barque now contained!
We sat whispering about the unhappy creature and his wretchedsubordinate; then our talk went to other matters. I told Helga we neednot question that the intention of the crew was to cast the vessel awayupon some part of the South African coast, near enough to Cape Town toenable them to trudge the distance, but too remote from civilization forthe movements of the barque to be witnessed. That was their resolution,I said: I would swear to it as though it had been revealed to me. Thatthey would never suffer us three men to land alive we might be as sureas that they had slaughtered Bunting and his mate.
'Their oath counts for nothing, you think?' said she.
I answered, 'Nothing: they would value their lives above their oath. Notlikely they would suffer us to testify to their crime.' Under theserpent-fair exterior of Nakier lay as passionless a capacity of murderas ever formed the mechanical instinct of any deadly beast or reptile.
'His eye,' I said, 'will never be off us.' Even as we whispered, hisgaze, or that of another subtle as himself, might be upon us. He wasthe one to fear; and this carried me into asking, 'What is to be done?'
Yet, before the hands of the clock were upon the hour of four, we knewwhat was to be done. It was wholly Helga's scheme. Her brain had plannedit all; but it was not until she spoke and delivered her plot bit by bitthat I understood the reason of her silence while I had been feverishlywhispering my fears, talking of the Captain, of Nakier, of the treacheryof the Malay and Cingalese miscreants, and asking, as one might thinkaloud, 'What is to be done?'
We went on deck at four; it was the darkest hour of the night, but veryquiet. I bade Abraham and the other man go forward and turn in, as hadheretofore been their custom.
'Not a word!' I cried, in swift response to the first of Jacob'sremonstrance. 'I cannot speak here. There are thirsty ears at the wheel.We have planned that long before this time to-morrow the barque shall beour own, with nothing more for you to do than to calculate the value ofthe salvage. I'll find an early chance to explain--but not here! not_now_! Forward
with you both; for our lives depend upon the fellowsbelieving that we have confidence in them.'
This I spoke as rapidly as intelligibility would permit, and, withHelga, drew away from them, moving towards the wheel. They hung asthough staring and deliberating a few moments, then, without a word,went forward.
I spoke pleasantly to the fellow at the helm--what man it was I couldnot see--said that the vessel's course was the right navigation for theSouth African coast, and so forth. He answered me throatily, with a noteof satisfaction in his thick speech, and then Helga and I fell toquietly pacing the deck.
We took great care to speak low; so nimble and ghostly were themovements of this coloured crew, that it was impossible to tell where aman might be lying listening and hidden. Twice I beheld the flitting ofa shadow in the obscurity round about the mainmast, and all the while Iwalked I was again and again casting a look behind me.
It seemed an eternity ere the cold gray of the dawn hovered in the east.The first sight the bleak and desolate light revealed was a patch ofdark crimson abreast of the companion, close against the rail, markingthe spot where the unhappy mate had been stabbed. The barque stoleglimmering out to the daylight, lifting her ashen canvas with a gloomabout the deck where the forecastle ended, as though the blackness ofthe night had been something tangible, and the lingering shadows betwixtthe rails fragments and tatters of it. I swept the sea-line. The oceanwas a gray desert floating in thin lines of swell which made it resemblea vast carpet stirred by a draught of wind. But the small breeze of theprevious evening was still with us, and the broad bows of the vesselbroke the water into wrinkles fine-drawn as piano-wire, as she swamforwards, slowly rolling.
Three of the crew sat squatting like Lascars against the long-boat. Icalled, and they instantly sprang to their feet and came aft.
'Get scrapers,' said I, 'and work that stain out of the deck as fast asyou can move your arms.'
They sprang forwards, returned with the necessary tools, and in a minutewere on their knees scraping violently. With a dreadful feeling ofsickness of heart I rejoined Helga at the other end of the deck.
The sun rose: the morning was to be a bright one; the heavens went, in aclear tropic blue, into the south and west, and in the north-east theclouds, like a scattering of frosted silver, hung high andmotionless--mere pearly feathers or vapour, to be presently absorbed.Helga went below, to her cabin under the deck. When I asked her if shedid not feel timid at the idea of penetrating those gloomy depths alone,she smiled, and, merely saying, 'You have called me brave, but you donot believe me so!' she left me.
It was shortly after seven o'clock that I spied Nakier standing in thegalley-door, talking to someone within. I called to him: he immediatelyknocked the ashes out of his pipe, and slipping the inch of sooty clayinto his breast, approached me. His salute was full of respect, and hesurveyed me with eyes so gentle and so cordial, that one looked to seethe engaging tenderness of his heart overflowing his face in smiles. Somuch for appearances! The most poisonous-fanged rogue of them all inthat barque, full of coloured wretches made miscreants and murderers ofby Captain Joppa Bunting's theories of conversion, might have passed toevery eye as one of the very few sweet-souled men in this great world ofwrong-headed humanity!
'Send Abraham to me,' said I, in the civilest manner I could command.'It is his watch below, but I desire his presence and help while Ioverhaul the Captain's cabin for charts, for instruments of navigation,and so forth.'
He sought to veil, by drooping his lids, the keen glance he shot at me.
'Yaas, I send Misser Vise to you, sah,' said he; 'but first I would liketo speakee about dat place we sail to. We have agree, and we ask you,'he continued with a smile that put an expression of coaxing into hishandsome face, 'to agree allee same with us to sail for Mossel Bay. Itis a very good bay, and it have a nice little town.'
'Yes,' said I; 'and when we get there, what do you mean to do with theship?'
'Oh, we allee go ashore,' he answered.
He then asked me if I knew where Mossel Bay was. I answered that I hadnever heard of the place, but that if it was down on the charts weshould undoubtedly be able to carry the barque to it. I then againrequested him to send Abraham aft, that he and I and the young ladymight examine the contents of the Captain's cabin, ascertain thesituation of the ship when observations were last taken, and confer asto the course to be steered. I thought he hesitated for an instant, but,with true Malay swiftness of resolution that scarcely gave me time tonote the hang of the mind in him, he exclaimed: 'I will send MisserVise, sah,' and went forward.
In a few minutes Abraham arrived. He was speedily followed by Jacob, whohung about in the waist, looking wistfully aft. He, however, was to betalked to afterwards, for the policy of the three of us was to keep asseparate as possible, coming together only under such excuse as I hadnow invented. The men who formed the watch on deck were 'loafing about,'to use the expressive vulgarism, one lounging against the bulwark-railwith another talking to him; here a fellow squatting like a Hindooblowing a cloud, there a couple patrolling ten feet of deck, their armsfolded upon their breasts. There was no gesticulation, no excitement,nothing of the swift fierce whispered conversation significant with theflashing of the askant glance that had been noticeable down to the duskof the previous evening. Nakier paced the weather-side of theforecastle. I never once caught him looking our way, yet I could _feel_that the fellow had us in his eye as fully as though his stare was alevel one.
'Abraham,' said I, 'I have sent for you under the pretence of helping meto overhaul the dead skipper's stock of nautical appliances. My realmotive is to create an opportunity to acquaint you with the plot MissNielsen and I settled between us while we were in the cuddy. Don't lookknowing, man! Put on as honest and stupid a Deal beach air as you canmanufacture.'
I called to Nakier.
'The barque will want watching. Step aft and keep a look-out while weare below, will you?' and, followed by Abraham, I entered the cuddy.