There was on one to be seen.
Powell had not expected to see anybody. "But," he said to me, "I knew
very well there was an ear listening and an eye glued to the crack of a
cabin door. Awful thought. And that door was in that part of the saloon
remaining in the shadow of the other half of the curtain. I pointed at
it and I suppose that old man inside saw me pointing. The captain had a
wonderful self-command. You couldn't have guessed anything from his
face. Well, it was perhaps more thoughtful than usual. And indeed this
was something to think about. But I couldn't think steadily. My brain
would give a sort of jerk and then go dead again. I had lost all notion
of time, and I might have been looking at the captain for days and months
for all I knew before I heard him whisper to me fiercely: "Not a word!"
This jerked me out of that trance I was in and I said "No! No! I didn't
mean even you."
"I wanted to explain my conduct, my intentions, but I read in his eyes
that he understood me and I was only too glad to leave off. And there we
were looking at each other, dumb, brought up short by the question "What
next?"
"I thought Captain Anthony was a man of iron till I saw him suddenly
fling his head to the right and to the left fiercely, like a wild animal
at bay not knowing which way to break out .
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