“Will you tell me who he is?”
Urquhart seated himself on a coiled anchor cable. “No,” he said. “I said I’ve only a few weeks or days to live, but I’d prefer to live them.”
“Are you scared of your partner?”
“So should you be, Sergeant. I’ve seen him take on three Greenlandmen at one time and walk away unscathed. He’ll break your back across his knee and smile at the memory.”
“Aye, maybe so,” Watters said, “but that’s not your reason for keeping the name to yourself."
Urquhart leaned back, coughed, and smiled again. “I might die before we return to the Tay, Sergeant, or I might live to hang, but either way, I won’t betray my loyalty. I’ll die knowing that Muirhead will never learn who’s hunting him down.”
Watters thought of the whaling men of Charming Amelia and Arthur who lied for the
