The man nodded.

'I suppose you know, Nakier,' said I, with a sense of dismay pressing like a weight upon my spirits, 'that this young lady and I wish to return home? The Captain refused to part with us--he insisted on carrying us with him--we have a home to return to. Surely you do not intend that we should make the pa.s.sage 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 with these--arter what's--'soides, I don't know nothen about longitude.'

'For mercy's sake, man, don't talk like that!' cried I. 'Miss Nielsen and I must be transhipped.'

'So must Oi!' said Abraham.

'And Oi!' hoa.r.s.ely shouted Jacob.

'What ees it you say?' exclaimed Nakier, smiling.

'Why, that we all of us wish to get aboard another vessel,' said I, 'and leave this barque in your hands to do whatever you like with.'

There was a sharp muttering of 'No, no!' with some fierce shaking of heads on either side the table. Nakier made a commanding gesture and uttered 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,' cried Abraham, 'there's me for wan as is ready to take moy oath that I'll say nothen about what's happened, purwiding you safely set us aboard another wessel.'

Nakier strained his ear, with a puzzled face. The language of Deal was happily 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, without lifting her eyes to my face or turning her head, said softly, in little more than a whisper, so that only I, who stood at her shoulder, could catch her accents:

'You can see by their faces that they are resolved. All this has been preconcerted. 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 the mate's.'

Nakier's glowing eyes were upon her, but, though the movements of her lips might have been visible, it would seem to them as though she whispered to herself. The conviction that she was absolutely right in her advice came to me with her words. I needed but to glance at the double line of determined faces to gather that argument, that even hesitation would merely result in speedily enraging the fellows; that they 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 a place of safety; and this, too, I saw with the help of the illumination supplied by Helga's few words--that, fully believing the girl qualified to navigate the vessel, they might, if we provoked them, destroy the three of us and retain her, counting upon their threats and her situation 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 you interfere, your blood will be on your own heads!'

Then, addressing Nakier:

'Your demands are these: the barque is to be navigated to some part of the 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 the chart.'

Up went a second finger, followed by another 'Yaas, sah!'

'We are not to communicate with pa.s.sing 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 be true, 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 repel the idea.

'There must be other conditions!' said I, talking with an air of resolution which, I fear, was but poorly simulated. 'First as to the accommodation?'

'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 is your room. No man of us come here.'

'And here I stop, tew,' said Abraham. 'No more of your forecastle for me, mates!'

'Nor for me!' rumbled Jacob.

'Do not say so!' exclaimed Helga, turning hastily to address them. 'Be advised. Do not interfere. Let Mr. Tregarthen have his way.'

'And I suppose,' I continued, running my eyes over the rows of faces till they settled on Nakier, 'that we shall be waited upon as usual, and that we shall be as well cared for as when Captain Bunting was alive?'

'Yaas, sah! yaas, sah!' said Nakier demonstratively, and Punmeamootty shouted:

'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 gaze was 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 will navigate this ship for you. But first you and your mates will swear by that 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 our friends; to serve us and do our bidding as though we were the officers of this ship. Explain this to your men, and let them take the oath in their and your country's fashion, and we shall be satisfied.'

On this he addressed them. I hear now his melodious voice and witness his animated handsome face as he poured forth his rich unintelligible syllables. It was difficult to look at the fellow and not believe that he was some prince of his own nation. There was nothing in his scarecrow clothes 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 of fascinating and paralyzing with his marvellous eyes, holding his victim motionless till he should choose to strike. His influence over the others was manifestly supreme, and I had no doubt whatever that the tragedy which had been enacted was his, and wholly his, by the claim of creation and command. While he talked I would here and there mark a dingy face with a look of expostulation in it. The lamp swinging fairly over the table yielded light enough to reveal expressions. When he had ceased there was a little hubbub of voices, a running growl so to speak of 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 a.s.surance does not satisfy them.'