as extorted from me
the above explanation, and then continued, with much greater cordiality:

"Believe me, Mr Conyers, I am sincerely grateful to you for your
perfectly evident anxiety on my account; but I am obliged to confess
that I do not regard our situation as nearly so desperate as you seem to
do; I do not think that either of us will have anything to fear from
O'Gorman and his companions if you will but reconcile yourself to the
performance of the task that they have imposed upon you. What I _do_
really fear is what may happen if you wilfully exasperate them by making
any attempt to thwart their plans by depriving them of your assistance--
without which, I would remind you again, they can do nothing. Help them
to carry through their undertaking--never mind whether or not it be a
fool's errand--and I have every confidence that they will treat us with
the utmost consideration, after their own rough fashion; but seriously
provoke them, and, I ask you, what are likely to be the consequences to
us both? Of course if you can so contrive it that we can _both_ be
rescued by the ship in sight, I shall be more delighted than I can say;
but as to your attempting to get _me_ transferred to her _alone_--you
will think it strange, unaccountable, perhaps, but I feel so very much
more safe here, with you to protect me, than I should on board the
strange ship, _alone_, that if you are to remain here I would very much
rather remain with you."

Words calculated to send the blood of an ardent lover throbbing through
his veins like quicksilver, are they not? Yet they excited not one atom
of jubilation in me, for they were uttered in a tone of such coldness
and indifference that I felt as certain as I could be of anything that
it was wholly of herself, and not at all of me, that the speaker was
thinking.

"Very well," I answered, steeling myself to the adoption of an equally
cold manner of speech; "I think I understand your wishes in this matter,
and will endeavour to carry them out; if the strangers yonder can be
induced to take us _both_ out of the hands of these ruffians, well and
good; if not, I am to take no other steps?"

She bowed acquiescence, and turned to her book once more, with a manner
indicating that the discussion was at an end; and I, accepting the hint,
retired at once to my cabin to prepare a letter addressed to the skipper
of the stranger, to be conveyed to him if opportunity should permit.

But although I