"It is quite useless for you to attempt to dissuade me from my purpose. I have made up my mind," said Carew doggedly. Baptiste at once abandoned his threatening tone, and spoke in a respectful manner. "You have been very lucky so far; but don't be rash. Remember that luck assists him who assists himself. Consider how recklessly imprudent it would be to leave these men on the island. They would soon signal to a passing vessel, and be taken off; and pray, what then would our poor heads be worth?" "Vessels constantly sight Trinidad," replied Carew, "but they never pass very near it. For the other side of the island is fringed with dangerous rocks far out to sea, as the chart will show you; and, since the prevailing wind hereabouts is south-east, a ship would give this side also a wide berth, for fear of being becalmed under the lee of the mountains. How could the men signal to a vessel miles out at sea?" "Necessity finds a How. What is to prevent them from lighting a large fire?" "We will not leave them the means of lighting a fire." "They would soon discover the means. Suppose, for instance, they picked up some empty bottle that had been washed on shore, they could use the bottom of it as a burning-glass. I have heard of such a thing being done." "I will not argue the question with you. Those men shall be landed on that island; they shall not die on board this vessel." "Even if I agreed to run so great a risk, I know that the other two would not. You do not want a civil war on board, do you, captain?" "I do not fear one. You cannot do without me, and you all know it. If you murdered me and took this vessel into port, do you imagine that the salvage would be handed over to you without demur, as it would be to me if I applied for it? Grave suspicions would be raised, and there would be a minute investigation. Those two idiots would contradict each other in their evidence. It would all end in one of you turning Queen's evidence and the other two being hanged. Is not that right?" "I cannot deny that there is reason in your remarks," said Baptiste coolly. "Now am I to understand that you wish these men to live?" "I repeat that they shall not die on board this vessel!" Baptiste's keen eyes scanned Carew's careworn face; then the Provençal smiled, for he fancied that he now understood the working of the Englishman's mind. "This clever idiot must be humoured," he said to himself. "This is a new 'fixed idea' of his. He shrinks from bloodshed; he will not sanction it. But if we take these men on shore for him, knock them on the head there without consulting him, and then return to him with some fine excuse about their having resisted us and so compelled us to kill them in self-defence--why, he will pretend to believe us; he will ask no questions, and be glad that the danger has been removed. I understand this strange man now."