is but little if any the less on that account. Yet I was never a consenting party to wholesale murder, whatever else I was. The night before I sailed, Santos and the captain were aboard with me till the small hours. They promised me that every soul should have every chance; that nothing but unforeseen accident could prevent the boats from making Ascension again in a matter of hours; that as long as the gig was supposed to be lost with all hands, nothing else mattered. So they promised, and that
not to let you. I wouldn’t if I was fit to walk five miles.”
“But I’ll roon ‘em, sir! I will that! I’ll go as fast as iver I can!”
“And have a conveyance at the road-end of the lane as near an hour hence as you possibly can?”
“Why, there, sir!” he cried, crassly inspired; “I could drive you in our own trap in half the time.”