"
The mucker turned, a sulky scowl upon his lowering countenance,
and the second officer saw that it was the fellow who
had given Ward such a trimming the first day out.
"Oh, it's you is it, Byrne?" he said in a not unpleasant
tone. "Come to my quarters a moment, I want to speak with
you," and so saying he wheeled about and retraced his way
below, the seaman at his heels.
"My man," said Theriere, once the two were behind the
closed door of the officer's cabin, "I needn't ask how much
you overheard of the conversation in the captain's cabin. If
you hadn't overheard a great deal more than you should you
wouldn't have been so keen to escape detection just now.
What I wanted to say to you is this. Keep a close tongue in
your head and stick by me in what's going to happen in the
next few days. This bunch," he jerked his thumb in the
direction of the captain's cabin, "are fixing their necks for
halters, an' I for one don't intend to poke my head through
any noose of another man's making. There's more in this
thing if it's handled right, and handled without too many men
in on the whack-up than we can get out of it if that man
Divine has to be counted in. I've a plan of my own, an' it
won't take but three or four of us to put it across.
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