Part 7 (2/2)
”Indeed! May I ask what they are?”
”Certainly. The question is just this. Why should I, and thousands like me, have to work and slave for a bare living, whilst there are others who never do a stroke of work in their whole lives and yet have houses, and land, and money, horses and carriages--in fact, all that heart can wish for? Is this fair, or right, or just?”
”a.s.suredly it is,” was the reply, ”and so, I think, you will admit, if you will give the matter a moment's consideration. It is not your fault or mine that you and I do not occupy the enviable position in life to which you have just referred; it is the fault, if fault there be, of our ancestors. They did not happen to be money-getters, and therefore, if we wish to enjoy the advantages attendant upon the possession of a fortune, large or small, we must get the fortune for ourselves. Just look at the question for a moment from the millionaire's point of view.
If you happened to possess a fortune would you consider it fair or just that you should be called upon to divide it evenly with everybody worse off than yourself? For that, I fancy, is the idea you have in your mind.”
This was another poser which Williams evidently found it wholly impossible to answer. He hung his head in deep and perplexed thought for some minutes, and at length said:
”It is quite impossible for me to argue with you, as I said before; but the long and the short of it is this, we have made our plans, and we intend to carry them out, right or wrong. But you need have no apprehension for yourselves. We have no intention to prey upon private individuals; and though we shall be obliged to land you on some spot from which it will be impossible for you to escape, we will deliver up to you the whole of your private property, and also furnish you with means to protect yourselves and to preserve your lives, so far as we have the power.”
And without waiting to discuss the question further, the mutineer rose from the table and beat a somewhat precipitate retreat.
”Had you any hope of convincing the fellow?” asked the doctor, when the little party once more found themselves free to converse unreservedly.
”No, I cannot say I had,” answered Gaunt; ”but I thought I might so far shake his purpose as to make him hesitate about his future plans, and so give us a little more time in which to act. But it is evident enough that he has no wish to be convinced; if, therefore, we are to do anything we must make our arrangements speedily. Come on deck and have a smoke, old fellow.”
The ladies had no fancy for being left alone just then; the entire party, therefore, children included, adjourned to the p.o.o.p. Williams was then standing in the waist talking to the boatswain, to whom he appeared to be giving some instructions; but on observing the movements of the pa.s.sengers he signed to Ned, who was standing near, to follow him, and hastily made his way into the saloon.
”Bring me the captain's charts,” he said, as soon as Ned joined him.
The charts were produced; and after carefully looking them over Williams selected a track-chart of the world, which he carefully spread out on the table.
”Now, show me whereabouts we are,” he said.
Ned indicated the position of the s.h.i.+p by making a pencil dot on the paper, and a long period of anxious study on Williams' part followed.
”What is the course to the Straits of Sunda?” was the next question.
Ned told him; whereupon Williams left the saloon, and a moment later was heard altering the course of the s.h.i.+p in accordance with Ned's information. He then returned to the saloon, and unrolled a chart of the North Pacific, which he pored anxiously over for fully a quarter of an hour, finally huddling the charts all together in a heap, with the remark, ”That will do for the present;” which Ned construed into a token of dismissal, and accordingly left the cabin.
Day followed day with little or no variety, the weather continuing fine all the time, and at length the _Flying Cloud_ arrived within a few days' sail of the Straits of Sunda. Ned now spent on deck every moment he could possibly spare from sleep, as he was not without hopes that hereabout a man-of-war might be fallen in with; and he was resolved that, in such a case, it should go hard but he would make some effort to communicate to her the state of affairs on board.
And, as a matter of fact, they actually did sight a frigate on the day upon which they entered the straits. But Williams was not to be caught napping; he too had evidently contemplated some such possibility, and had taken such precautions as not only rendered it impossible for anyone to make a private signal, but had also arranged such answers to the signals usually made on such occasions that the frigate was completely hoodwinked, and pa.s.sed on her way without attempting to send a boat alongside.
This was a terrible disappointment, not only to Ned but also to Gaunt and the doctor, each of them having confidently reckoned upon a certain deliverance in the event of a man-of-war being fallen in with.
They now recognised that in Williams, whether educated or not, they had a man of no ordinary acuteness to deal with; they realised that, though apparently free as air to act as they pleased, an unceasing watch was being kept upon them, and they felt that henceforth they must not place any dependence upon the hope of help from without. They all, therefore, individually and collectively too, so far as they had opportunity, began to plot and scheme; in the hope of being able to hit upon some plan which might enable them to recover possession of the s.h.i.+p, going even to the perilous length of sounding the least unpromising of the crew in the hope of finding at least a few of them open to either persuasion or bribery. But it was all of no avail. The men proved not only unresponsive but suspicious; and they were also wholly unsuccessful in their efforts to communicate with Captain Blyth, of whom they could not get so much as a sight, much less speech with him.
”It is of no use for us to try any further,” at last said Gaunt, when talking matters over with the doctor. ”We have tried our best, but Williams is too acute and too strong for us. I have noticed a certain something in his manner within the last day or two which tells me that we are standing on very perilous ground, and we must drop the whole affair before worse comes of it. We must not forget that the women and children have only us to look to for protection in this awful strait; it will never do for us to attempt anything which might result in their being left to the tender mercies of those ruffians forward. The only thing we can now hope for is a speedy and safe deliverance from their clutches by being landed somewhere; and we must pray that they will be induced to land us on some spot where we may not only be able to make ourselves safe, but also to secure the means of living.”
Meanwhile the s.h.i.+p pa.s.sed safely through the Straits of Sunda, along the south coast of Borneo, and so into the Java and Flores Seas; Williams maintaining a ceaseless and anxious watch upon Ned as the lad daily p.r.i.c.ked off upon the chart the position of the s.h.i.+p, and frequently altering the course with the evident object of inspecting certain islands, probably to ascertain whether they were suitable for landing his unwelcome guests upon. Several islands were visited, but none of them proved satisfactory. Some were found to be inhabited by savages, whose demonstrations at sight of the s.h.i.+p were so unmistakably hostile that it would have been obviously only murder thinly disguised to have landed any white person there, whilst others seemed deficient in the means of sustaining life. Wandering thus about the ocean a fortnight pa.s.sed away, and Williams began to grow impatient; so much so indeed that he at length proposed landing the pa.s.sengers on the next land seen, let it be what it would. But to this the crew would not agree: they were as yet young in crime, and were determined that, since the pa.s.sengers _must_ be got rid of, they should at least be given a fair chance. A compromise was at length come to, by which it was agreed that the search should be continued for three days longer, after which the unlucky pa.s.sengers were to be landed on the first land seen, there to take their chance. This matter was decided at a council composed of the entire crew, on the evening of a day whereon no less than three islands had been fruitlessly visited; and at the close of the discussion Ned was summoned and the chart consulted. At Williams' request the area already examined was pointed out, and then, after much discussion, a course of due east was decided upon, in order that a new tract of sea might be explored. On this course the chart showed a clear sea for something like three hundred miles ahead of them. Everybody was therefore much astonished when at daybreak next morning land was descried right ahead at a distance of only about ten miles.
The discovery was of course first reported to Williams, who seemed greatly disconcerted by it.
”Call Ned,” said he.
Ned was duly summoned, and soon made his appearance on the topgallant- forecastle, upon which Williams had already established himself, and from which advantageous stand-point he was watching the approach of the s.h.i.+p to the land.
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