‘How far is it off from where we are?’ inquired one of the men. I told him. Several questions of a like kind were put to me; a growling ran amongst them as they hummed their comments into one another’s ears. Meanwhile, I stood inspecting them with mingled inquisitiveness and disgust. What a miserable pass had the wretches brought the girl and me to! What bitter anxieties had they overwhelmed us with! What was to be our future so far as they should have a share in the creation of it? I sought in vain amidst their various countenances, composed of hair and warts and beards, of leathery skins, of moist eyes dim with weather, of the smooth cheeks of two or three of the younger fellows—I sought in vain, I say, for a single expression to assure me of the existence of qualities upon whose generous response I might depend, should it ever come to my having to entreat them. Yet they presented, as I long ago said, just such exteriors as you would expect to meet with in the sailors of a humble trader like the _Lady Blanche_. ‘Well, men,’ exclaimed the carpenter, ‘there ain’t no doubt to my mind. It’s all right; and I’m bound to say stan’ing here, that con-sidering that Mr. Dugdale guv’ up the sea a good bit ago, he’s managed oncommonly well down to this here time.’ There was a murmur of assent. I thought I would take advantage of this momentary posture in them of appreciation, perhaps of concession. ‘Since you are all before me,’ said I, ‘two excepted, let me ask you a question. You are aware, of course, that from the very beginning of this business I have regarded your whole scheme as the effect of a madman’s dream.’ Lush stared at me with an iron face; Forrest, with an impudent grin, shook his head; two or three of the fellows smiled incredulously. I proceeded, eyeing them deliberately one after the other, and speaking in the most collected tones I could command. ‘I want to know this: If Captain Braine’s island should have no existence in fact, what do you men propose to do?’ ‘No use putting it in that way!’ exclaimed the carpenter, after a brief pause, and a slow, sour wagging of his head; ‘the island’s there. ‘Tain’t no dream. Ye’ll find it right enough, I’ll warrant.’ ‘It was described to me,’ I went on, ‘as little more than a reef. This is a big sea, men. A reef is easily missed in such an ocean as this.’ ‘You have its bearings,’ exclaimed Forrest defiantly; ‘if you put the barque in the place on the chart where the captain said the island is, how are we agoing to miss it, unless all hands turns puppies, and keeps a lookout with their eyes shut?’