"Greene will you change places with me?" If the man had thought the request more than a whim, he would have supposed it to be because the captain considered his new choice a more dangerous post. Archdale seating himself again glanced toward the bow. He was now on the same side with Edmonson and the fourth man from him. It would be somewhat difficult to have the latter's gun go off by accident and be sure of its mark, and Greene was safe so far as exemption from an enemy at hand was concerned. Archdale would have preferred Edmonson's left hand but when it came to disembarking, his enemy should precede him.
"Better cushions?" asked Edmonson with a sneering laugh under which he tried to hide his anger. "Can't see any other motive for your running the risk of capsizing us."
"It is very presumptuous to do anything for which Captain Edmonson cannot see the motive," returned Archdale haughtily.
"By Heavens!" cried Edmonson in another moment "You're bound to die in character if it come to a question of dying and of course it will with some of us."
Stephen made no answer. He felt more strongly than ever that he needed good eyes and firm nerves. To be killed like a rat in a trap! His blood ran too warm in his veins to submit tamely to this. When the struggle should come yonder it mattered little whether it was by Edmonson's shot or another's, for if he fell in the heat of the conflict it would always be said that he died a soldier's death. And if he lived to come back Edmonson, should take boat first. He turned himself slightly toward his foe, and sat silent and observant.
Had Elizabeth noticed them enter the boat together? He had thought of saying good-by, for his volunteering was no sudden resolve, but had been his determination from the first. But if he died, what real difference would that make to her? And if he came back, the leave taking would seem an absurdity. He seemed still to see the outline of her slender figure, as with her shawl wrapped about her like a mantle she had stood bare-headed in the cold May evening.
Had he dreamed that Edmonson had learned of Katie's desertion, and was full of rage at every word of courtesy or interest that he spoke to Elizabeth, he would have felt his chance of life still less.