“Certainly not.... I am delighted. Good-by.”
I had an idea of what he meant to say, and just saved myself by the
privilege of defective hearing. He was too shaken generally to insist,
but my mate, close witness of that parting, looked mystified and his
face took on a thoughtful cast. As I did not want to appear as if
I wished to avoid all communication with my officers, he had the
opportunity to address me.
“Seems a very nice man. His boat’s crew told our chaps a very
extraordinary story, if what I am told by the steward is true. I suppose
you had it from the captain, sir?”
“Yes. I had a story from the captain.”
“A very horrible affair--isn’t it, sir?”
“It is.”
“Beats all these tales we hear about murders in Yankee ships.”
“I don’t think it beats them. I don’t think it resembles them in the
least.”
“Bless my soul--you don’t say so! But of course I’ve no acquaintance
whatever with American ships, not I, so I couldn’t go against your
knowledge. It’s horrible enough for me.... But the queerest part is
that those fellows seemed to have some idea the man was hidden aboard
here. They had really. Did you ever hear of such a thing?”
“Preposterous--isn’t it?”
We were walking to and fro athwart the quarter-deck. No one of the crew
forward could be seen (the day was Sunday), and the mate pursued:
“There was some little dispute about it. Our chaps took offense. ‘As
if we would harbor a thing like that,’ they said. ‘Wouldn’t you like to
look for him in our coal-hole?’ Quite a tiff. But they made it up in the
end. I suppose he did drown himself. Don’t you, sir?”
“I don’t suppose anything.”
“You have no doubt in the matter, sir?”
“None whatever.”
I left him suddenly. I felt I was producing a bad impression, but with
my double down there it was most trying to be on deck. And it was almost
as trying to be below. Altogether a nerve-trying situation. But on the
whole I felt less torn in two when I was with him. There was no one in
the whole ship whom I dared take into my confidence. Since the hands had
got to know his story, it would have been impossible to pass him off for
anyone else, and an accidental discovery was to be dreaded now more than
ever....
The steward being engaged in laying the table for dinner, we could talk
only with our eyes when I first went down. Later in the afternoon we
had a cautious try at whispering. The Sunday quietness of the ship was
against us; the stillness of air and water around her was against us;
the elements, the men were against us--everything was against us in our
secret partnership; time itself--for this could not go on forever. The
very trust in Providence was, I suppose, denied to his guilt. Shall I
confess that this thought cast me down very much? And as to the chapter
of accidents which counts for so much in the book of success, I could
only hope that it was closed. For what favorable accident could be
expected?
“Did you hear everything?” were my first words as soon as we took up our
position side by side, leaning over my bed place.
He had. And the proof of it was his earnest whisper, “The man told you
he hardly dared to give the order.”