"I don't, sir."

"You do. I have seen you do it a dozen times. And last night you took rum
into his room, and made him so drunk, he would have died where he lay if
I had not loosed his handkerchief."

"I am sorry to hear that, sir; but he was sober when I left him. The fool
must have got to the bottle the moment I was gone."

"But that bottle you put in his way; I saw you. And what was your object?
To deaden his conscience with liquor, his and your own, while you made
him your fiendish proposal. Man, man, do you believe in God, and in a
judgment to come for the deeds done in the body, that you can plan in
cold blood to destroy a vessel with nineteen souls on board, besides the
live stock, the innocent animals that God pitied and spared when he
raised his hand in wrath over Nineveh of old?"

While the clergyman was speaking, with flashing eyes and commanding
voice, the seaman turned ashy pale, and drew his shoulders together like
a cat preparing to defend her life.

"I plan to destroy a vessel, sir! You never heard me say such a word; and
don't you hint such a thing in the ship, or you will get yourself into
trouble."

"That depends on you."

"How so, sir?"