The prisoners swayed with the movements of the deck. They all seemed to listen with attention to the doctor’s discourse, but then any man will appear to listen with attention to the speech of another who has it in his power to flog him for not doing so. It was a strange scene, familiar enough in those days, never more by any possibility to be beheld again. On high spread the canvas in cloud upon cloud, swelling to the western brightness; soft masses of vapour rolled stately under a sky of deep, liquid blue; the swaying mass of convicts in the sickly hue of their prison dress, their irons like a chain cable stretching the length of the planks, half filled the barricade inclosure; at the brass rail above stood the doctor, flourishing his hand whilst he addressed them, and the listeners beside him were thrown out strong upon the eye by the red line of soldiers standing close behind. A pause seemed to fall upon the ship; the sailors dropped their work to stare and hearken; the second mate and the apprentices strained their gaze from the lee side of the poop at the rows of faces; far aft was the helmsman, stretching his neck and turning his head on one side and then on the other, as though to hear what the doctor said. ‘The youngest amongst you now,’ continued the doctor, ‘in some measure understand that it is in the strictest sense a moral discipline which I desire to see in operation on board this transport. In further proof of which I shall give orders that those irons--the badges of your disgrace--with which you are at present fettered, be removed from the whole of you; and I do most ardently hope that when I have once caused them to be struck off, you will not by your conduct demand of their being again replaced; for what can be more disgraceful to you and painful to me than the clanking of those irons as you walk along the decks?’ The address lasted about three-quarters of an hour. Captain Barrett replaced and let fall his eye-glass with impatience. A number of the convicts were now sent below, to return presently, as I supposed, when the others should have taken their allowance of exercise. I dared not linger, and walked slowly aft, sending searching looks at the prisoners, though I did not see Tom. How was I to deliver my letter? But it chanced that I had sight of many strange faces. A gang of prisoners passed close as I went toward the cuddy; a few were grey-haired men, bowed and wrinkled; some were young, and I marked that all these had defiant looks. One countenance, quickly as it passed, impressed me strongly; the man had fine, large, black, flashing eyes, and was a handsome, dark person, half a head taller than those who trudged near him; he held himself erect, and I seemed to notice a sort of theatrical air in his strides spite of the irons. I had heard someone say there was an actor among the felons, and I guessed that man was he. CHAPTER XXIV SHE ALARMS HER COUSIN