An angry answer was on my lips when the door of the berth close beside me was opened, and Tom stepped out. I had not imagined he was there. Will changed colour. My sweetheart, with the pleasantest smile I had yet seen on his face, put his hand on the lad’s shoulder, and exclaimed: ‘I couldn’t help overhearing you, Johnstone. But I’m in time, I hope, to stop more from being said than you’d wish me to catch. I admire your devotion to your cousin and thank you for it. It is what I should expect of one with Marian’s blood in him. Step this way, that our friend in the after-cabin yonder may not hear me.’ He led us into the berth I slept in, and closed the door. ‘Johnstone,’ said he, ‘I’ll ask you a question or two. How do you know that I didn’t attempt to scuttle the _Arab Chief_?’ The lad looked startled, and answered: ‘I don’t know, yet I’ll swear you never made the attempt.’ ‘You wish to think me innocent, but you can’t be sure?’ ‘On the top of Collins’s story I am sure,’ said Will. ‘Chaw! What is that evidence? Mere hearsay; the talk of a scoundrel seaman perhaps against his captain, and it’s two to one still even at that. How is Bates to know I’m guiltless? How is Marian, except of her great love and noble devotion and faith in me, to hold me innocent of a charge on which an intelligent jury and a sagacious judge condemned me, imprisoned me, expatriated me? Now,’ said he, talking with perfect temper, ‘I’ve a right to prove myself an honest man to you all, haven’t I? The machinery of proof, by a marvellous ordering of Providence, happens to be on board; I’m a little at a loss how to handle it; advise me, Johnstone.’ I seated myself at this point, and he put his arm round my neck, with a light, sarcastic smile as he looked at the lad. ‘There’s nothing to be done but wring the truth out of the beast,’ said Will. ‘How? As you wring a swab! Advise me, Johnstone.’ My cousin coloured, looked down, and was silent. ‘My lad,’ said Tom, after a pause, ‘you cannot counsel me. Of course not. Neither can Bates. What’s the key, then, to fit this lock? Why, patience. And patience means that I must keep my brace of villains aboard this brig till they confess, or sicken and die, never parting with them till I’ve torn the jewel they’ve robbed me of out of their black hearts. If I send you home you’ll have nothing to complain of!’ ‘No, sir. But Marian----’ ‘Marian shall accompany you.’ ‘Never!’ I cried, flinging his arm from my neck to look at him. ‘Marian,’ he said tenderly, ‘you will do what I wish when the time comes. No man could swiftly strike out of such an amazing business as this a full and satisfying plan. You’ll do what I wish, and help me by obeying.’ ‘But you mean to hang Rotch, Captain Butler?’ said Will. ‘In time I may, Johnstone, even if I have to carry him to the South Seas to do it. But the villain’s span, you see, is not yet allotted, as far as I am concerned.’