“Wha would be a traitor slave,
Let him turn and flee!”
Campbell was staring at the wall like one who sees
a
vision but cannot make out its meaning.
The voice of Black McTee swelled high and strong:
“Wha for Scotland’s king and law
Freedom’s sword will strongly draw,
Freemen stand and freemen fa’,
Let him on wi’ me!”
And the glass dropped from the lips of the Scotchman.
It crashed against the hard floor. Broad Scotch
was on his tongue.
“I canna drink wi’ murderers!” he
cried.
“Damn you!” said Hovey, and drove his
fist into Campbell’s face, hurling him to the
deck.
The manacles were clapped on his wrists again; he
was dragged once more to his feet.
“Take him out,” said Hovey to the grinning
sailors who had lingered in the door. “Take
him back to the waist of the ship before the wireless
house. Wait for me there. And see that Van
Roos and Borgson are brought there also.”
As Campbell was dragged away, the bos’n said
to his companions: “Now, lads, you see
where Campbell stands!”
They growled for answer.
“But I’ll get him!” went on Hovey.
“I’m going to kill Van Roos and Borgson
by inches before his eyes. And when he sees ’em
die—they’ll have to die, anyway,
before we reach shore—Campbell will be water
in our hands. He’ll see ’em die,
an’ them in the wireless house will see ’em
die. Their throats are thick with thirst by now.
We’ll show ’em water an’ food, an’
offer it to ’em if they’ll give up Henshaw.
If they won’t, we’ll show ’em how
we’ll kill ’em when they’re too weak
to resist. They’ll see a sample in Van
Roos and Borgson. Every yell they let out’ll
be an argument for us. We’ll have Henshaw
before the day’s done.”
Sam Hall pushed his thick fingers slowly through his
hair, stupefied by this careful cruelty, and even
the one eye of Jacob Flint grew dim, but Garry Cochrane
slapped the bos’n on the shoulder heartily.
“Jerry,” he said, “you got the makin’s
of a great man. Let’s go start the fun.”
On the way aft they passed the firemen sprawling on
the shady side of the deck. They stumbled to
their feet at sight of Hovey, and swore volubly that
the hole of the ship was too hot for a man to live
in it five minutes. Hovey passed them without
a word. He had to tend to Campbell now, and without
an engineer it was useless to work men in the fireroom.
First of all he had two buckets of water carried aft
and placed just below the edge of the raised deck
which supported the wireless house. There were
dippers floating invitingly on the surface of the water
in each bucket. Then from the galley of the ship
Kamasura and Shida, the cabin boys, brought out steaming
meats and cut loaves of bread and displayed the feast
near the buckets of water. Upon this outlay gazed
the famine-stricken fugitives, Sloan, McTee and Harrigan;
Kate did not see, for she was caring for the sick
captain. Hovey advanced and made a speech.
