"Are you sure of him?"
"Sure enough. We--have spoke of it. But----"
"I've seen him wear a pistol sometimes. I suppose he could use it?"
Ledyard grunted. "I suppose he might even bear a message from me to
Captain Jenks?"
"Oh, my God!... You mean it, don't you?"
"I will ask you to cease doubting it. Now, how many men would it
require, to get _Artemis_ home to Boston?"
"God!... Three or four hands could do it somehow." He sounded calmer.
Glancing at him again, Ben found his face no less a battlefield, even
more perhaps, but it had grown sharp with intelligence. "On such a thing
as that, Mr. Cory, you'd be obliged to play it timid, understand me?
Reef in at the first hint of dirty weather, if you'll take an old
seaman's word for it. Comes fast, do you see? You remember we rode out a
bad one off Grenada last year, and it was all hands hop to it, and even
then it near-about caught us. Now imagine two or three men trying to get
her snug in the time we did it then! Remember you got to keep one at the
helm. All the same--all the same, sir, three or four hands could do it.
That--is your intention?"
"It's my intention to try. What about Dummy?"
"Shawn's dog. Jack's another dog, a mad one."
"That's mostly show, I think. It makes others let him alone."
"Maybe, but don't trust him, Mr. Cory. He's not--with us."
"Manuel?"
"Can neither fight nor hold his tongue.... If you--if we can take care
of Shawn and the others, you would release the Captain?"
"Certainly."
"Then I ... Mr. Cory, I'll beg you for your word on a--on two things, if
I may."
"What?"
"If we can do it, and if Captain Jenks is free, put in a word for me.
Let him know that whatever else I did, I tried to change back to what I
was. Let him know I went back. Those would be the words, Mr. Cory. Say
to him, if so be I can't say it myself, say that Matthew Ledyard went
back."
"I will."
"And one other thing. If we can do it, then when we raise the Cape
or--my God, better if it might be Rhode Island, but I suppose there's no
hope of that--aid me, if you can, to get away in the boat. It's a thing,
Mr. Cory--I've got a fear I wouldn't hang decent. Sooner drown. Would it
sit fair with your conscience to help me run for it? Would you do that
much, if I can help you in this thing?"
Ben said: "It sticks in my conscience that hanging never mended
anything, and I will do that if I can. It'll mean deceiving Captain
Jenks, helping you steal the boat, but I will do it. Matthew Ledyard,
I'm eighteen, with less than a year at sea against the many that you've
served. Can you take orders from me?"