r in the cabin, mostly without speech:
I, sometimes dozing over a book; Nares, sullenly but busily drilling
sea-shells with the instrument called a Yankee fiddle. A stranger might
have supposed we were estranged; as a matter of fact, in this silent
comradeship of labour, our intimacy grew.

I had been struck, at the first beginning of our enterprise upon the
wreck, to find the men so ready at the captain's lightest word. I dare
not say they liked, but I can never deny that they admired him
thoroughly. A mild word from his mouth was more valued than flattery,
and half a dollar from myself; if he relaxed at all from his habitual
attitude of censure, smiling alacrity surrounded him; and I was led to
believe his theory of captainship, even if pushed to excess, reposed
upon some ground of reason. But even terror and admiration of the
captain failed us before the end. The men wearied of the hopeless,
unremunerative quest and the long strain of labour. They began to shirk
and grumble. Retribution fell on them at once, and retribution
multiplied the grumblings. With every day it took harder driving to
keep them to the daily drudge; and we, in our narrow boundaries, were
kept conscious every moment of the ill-will of our assistants.

In spite of the best care, the object of our search was perfectly well
known to all on board; and there had leaked out, besides, some knowledge
of those inconsistencies that had so greatly amazed the captain and
myself. I could overhear the men debate the character of Captain Trent,
and set forth competing theories of where the opium was stowed; and, as
they seemed to have been eavesdropping on ourselves, I thought little
shame to prick up my ears when I had the return chance of spying upon
them. In this way I could diagnose their temper and judge how far they
were informed upon the mystery of the _Flying Scud_. It was after having
thus overheard some almost mutinous speeches that a fortunate idea
crossed my mind. At night I matured it in my bed, and the first thing
the next morning broached it to the captain.

"Suppose I spirit up the hands a bit," I asked, "by the offer of a
reward?"

"If you think you're getting your month's wages out of them the way it
is, I don't," was his reply. "However, they are all the men you've got,
and you're the supercargo."

This, from a person of the captain's character, might be regarded as
complete adhesion; and the crew were accordingly called aft. Never had