“Merely waiting here, sir, on parole and by direction, till the proper authorities are ready to take us below!” And he thrust out his manacled hands to show how we were conditioned. “Well, here’s proper authority, ye’ll find out. Git, er I’ll jog ye!” And he made a motion to take me by the collar. I stepped aside and faced him. I looked him in the eyes with a sudden rage so deadly that he must have felt it, for he hesitated. I cared nothing then what befell me, and would have smashed him with my iron-locked wrist had he touched me, or else so tripped him and fallen with him that we should have gone overboard together. But he was a brute of some perception, and his hesitancy most likely saved us both. It gave Marc time to shout—“Guards! Guards! Here! Prisoner escaping!” Instantly along the red-lit deck came soldiers running—three of them. The mate had grabbed a belaying-pin, but stood fingering it, uncertain of his status in relation to the soldiers. “Corporal,” said Marc ceremoniously to one of them, discerning his rank by the stripes on his sleeve, “pardon the false alarm. There was no prisoner escaping. We were here on parole, by the favour of Lieutenant Waldron—as you yourself know, indeed, for we helped you this afternoon in getting scattered families together. But this man—we don’t know who he is—was brutal, and threatening violence in spite of our defenceless state. Please take us in charge!” “Certainly, Captain de Mer,” said the man promptly. “I was just about coming for you!” Then he turned to the mate with an air of triumphant aversion, in which lurked, perhaps, a consciousness of conflicting and ill-defined authorities. “No belaying-pins for the prisoners!” he growled. “Keep them for yer poor swabs o’ sailor lads.” As we marched down the deck under guard the sails overhead were all aglow, the masts and spars gleamed ruddily. The menacing radiance was by this time filling the whole heaven, and the small, quick-running surges flashed under it with a sinister sheen. As we reached the open hatch I turned for a last look at Grand Pré.