By Lynch’s order, we launched the dinghy, and, with me at the tiller and two lordly tradesmen at the oars, set out in humane but hopeless quest for the mate and the Nigger.  I cruised about for nigh an hour, and came back empty-handed.  We had not really expected to find them, or trace of them.  Fitzgibbon had been stabbed, and it was known, also, that he did not know how to swim; and as for the Nigger, “I plugged him as he jumped,” said Lynch.

When we got back, Lynch had me muster the available hands, and we launched the longboat.  All the rest of the night, Wong and his two under-servants cargoed that craft with stores of every kind.

One other man had lost his mess number in that ship, we discovered, as the night wore on.  The traitor.  We found not hide or hair of Cockney; he was gone from the ship, leaving no trace.  At least, no trace I could discover.  But when I looked for him, I became conscious of a new attitude towards me on the part of my shipmates.  I had been their mate, in a way their leader and champion.  Now, by virtue of Lynch’s word—­and Newman’s—­I was their boss.  I was no longer one of them.  Aye, and sailorlike they showed it by their reserve.  They said truthfully enough they did not know what had become of Cockney—­and they kept their guesses to themselves.  But my own guess was as good, and as true.  Boston and Blackie had attended to Cockney.  I could imagine how.  A knife across the windpipe and a boost over the side; without doubt some such fate was Cockney’s.

Mister Lynch made no effort to put the ship on her course.  We left the yards as they were, and drifted all the rest of the night.  I, and the unwounded tradesmen, kept the deck; in the cabin, the lady and Newman labored, and conferred with Lynch and Holy Joe.  Aye, Holy Joe, as well as myself, was lifted to higher estate by that night’s happenings.  He lived aft, even as I, the rest of the voyage, and was doctor of bodies as well as souls.

Near dawn, they called me into the cabin, and put dead man’s shoes upon my feet, so to speak.

“Shreve, it is my duty to take the ship into port,” says Lynch.  “What will be the outcome of tonight’s work, I do not know.  But I do not fear.  My testimony, and that of the sailmakers and carpenters, to say nothing of your story, and the stories of the other men forward, will be more than sufficient to convince any court of justice.  There will be no jailing because of to-night’s trouble—­you may tell the men that.”

“Yes, sir,” I replied.  Aye, it was good news to take forward to the poor shaking wretches in the foc’sle.

“You understand, I am captain for the remainder of the passage,” Lynch went on.  “And I have decided to appoint you chief mate.  Connolly will be second mate.”

Aye, that was it.  Jack Shreve, chief mate of the Golden Bough!  “I have decided,” says Lynch—­but I knew the decision belonged to Newman and the lady, who were smiling at me across the table.