CHAPTER VIII
FIRE ON BOARD
OCTOBER 15 to October 18.—The wind is still in the northeast. There is no change in the Chancellor’s course, and to an unprejudiced eye all would appear to be going on as usual. But I have an uneasy consciousness that something is not quite right. Why should the hatchways be so hermetically closed as though a mutinous crew was imprisoned between decks? I can not help thinking too that there is something in the sailors so constantly standing in groups and breaking off their talk so suddenly whenever we approach; and several times I have caught the word “hatches” which arrested M. Letourneur’s attention on the night of the disturbance.
On the 15th, while I was walking on the forecastle, I overheard one of the sailors, a man named Owen, say to his mates:
“Now I
