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Updated: May 14, 2025
Lynton's words were quite right, for the next day, after a most satisfactory run, Brace stood gazing over the bows of the brig at the thick muddy water that was churned up, and finding it hard to believe that he was sailing up the mouth of a river; for, look which way he would, nothing was to be seen but water, while when he tried his glass it was with no better success.
Well, there's nothing to mind to-night, gentlemen, so we may as well have our sleep out." "Sleep?" said Brace. "What! with the men in a state of mutiny?" "Pah!" ejaculated the captain. "Hallo! who's here?" "Me Dellow," said the first mate, in a hoarse whisper. "Lynton's here too. Is anything wrong?" "Yes," said the captain, and the two mates were made acquainted with the trouble.
Brace snatched at the tiller, and only just in time, for Lynton's grasp upon it gave out, and with a lurch forward he fell upon his face, which was, however, saved from injury, for he had clasped his hands upon it, and now lay in the bottom of the boat, hysterically sobbing with emotion like a girl.
The skipper said one thing, but I says to myself another. `Jem Lynton's no business to go off ashore the night we're going to sail, I says, `and I shan't go on doing his work and leaving him sleeping below there like a pig. So I waited till the skipper was busy forward talking to the look-out, and then I slips down below to get hold of poor old Jem by the hind leg and drop him on the floor."
The mate nodded, and drew about a dozen more yards from the open winder. "That ought to do it," he said. "I'll give the line a twist round that thole-pin, and then we shall hear it rattle if there's a bite and here hi! Bless my soul!" Whizz! whoop! bang! The thole-pin had darted overboard, the winder was snatched from Lynton's hand and struck violently against the steersman's leg.
"Here, what's the matter, my lads?" cried the former. "Master Lynton's ghost, sir," stammered the trembling sailors. "Mr Lynton's grandmother!" roared the captain, snatching up a coil of rope and flinging it to the bareheaded man in the boat, who caught it deftly as it opened out in rings. "Here, what do you mean by that cock-and-bull story, Dick Dellow?"
"Look, look!" he shouted. "Do you see? Do you see?" "See? How?" panted Briscoe. "I am nearly blind with staring at death." "Yes, yes, but look, look! Mr Brace the water, the water! We have got into an eddy, and it is setting right away from the falls." Brace turned round and saw that Lynton's words were true.
"Well, you gentlemen," he said, "I'm going to stop on deck till we're a few miles farther off the shore; so I shall keep Mr Dellow company till it's Lynton's watch, and then I shall turn in. Good night, gentlemen, good night." "Good night," said the brothers in a breath. "If you hear it come on to blow before morning, you needn't be surprised, for I think we're going to have a bit of wind.
For there'll be a few eyes closed up and swelled lips. Lynton's a very hard hitter, and when I do use my fists it generally hurts. Good three years, though, since I hit a man. He was a bit of a mutineer too: an ugly mulatto chap, full of fine airs, and given to telling me he wouldn't obey orders, and before the crew. I did hit him hard."
He sat staring at the water until he was recalled to a sense of what was passing around him by hearing Lynton's voice. "Oh, catch hold, sir; catch hold of this tiller and steer. Let her go fast as she will so as to get away from this horrid place. Quick! quick! I can't bear it! I'm going mad!"
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