But even as I sat looking at him in an interval of silence that fell upon us, a thought entered my head that transformed what was just now a dark, most sinister menace, into a bright prospect of deliverance. As matters stood—particularly now that I had his so-called secret—I could not flatter myself that he would suffer me to leave his ship for a homeward-bound craft, or even for the _Countess Ida_ herself, if we should heave her into sight. Consequently, my best, perhaps the only, chance for myself and the girl who looked to me for protection and safety must lie in this madman making for a near port, where it would be strange indeed if I did not find a swift opportunity of getting ashore with Miss Temple. I saw by the expression in his own face that he instantly observed the change in mine. He extended his hand. ‘Mr. Dugdale, you will entertain it? I see it grows upon ye.’ ‘It is a mighty unexpected proposal,’ said I, giving him my fingers to hold. ‘I don’t like the scheme it involves of running away with the ship—the deviation, as you term it, which to my mind is a piratical proceeding. But if you will sign a document to the effect that I acted under compulsion, that I was in your power, and obliged to go with you in consequence of your refusal to transfer me to another ship—if, in short, you will draw up some instrument signed by yourself and witnessed by Miss Temple that may help to absolve me from all complicity in this sotermed deviation, I will consent to accompany you to your island. But I must also know what share I am to expect?’ ‘A third,’ he cried feverishly. ‘I’ll put that down in writing, too, on a separate piece of paper. As to t’other document, draw it up yourself, and I’ll copy it and put my name to it, for I han’t got the language for such a job.’ He paused, and then said, ‘Is it settled?’ ‘It will be settled,’ I answered, ‘when those two formal documents are made out and signed.’ ‘That can be done at once,’ he cried, with profound excitement working in every limb of him, and agitating his face into many singular twitchings and almost convulsive dilatations of the sockets of his eyes. ‘Give me leave to think a little,’ said I. ‘I will have a talk with Miss Temple and settle with her the terms of the absolving letter you are to write and sign.’ ‘How long will it take ye?’ he asked with painful anxiety. ‘I shall hope to be ready for you before noon to-morrow,’ I replied. ‘All right,’ said he; ‘the moment it _is_ settled I’ll change my course.’ I took his track-chart and opened it, and with a pair of compasses that lay on the table measured the distance betwixt the point at which we had arrived at noon and Rio. Roughly speaking, and allowing an average of a hundred and fifty miles a day to the barque, I computed that the run would occupy between ten and twelve days. ‘What are ye looking for?’ he asked suspiciously. ‘To see how far Rio is from us,’ I answered. ‘Well, and what d’ye make it?’