So indefinite time went on, Alister occasionally making whispered comments which I did not hear, and did not trouble myself to ask questions about, being utterly indifferent to the answers.
But I felt no temptation to give in, I only remember feeling one intense desire, and it amounted to a prayer, that if these intolerable sensations did not abate, I might at any rate become master enough of them to do my duty in their teeth.

The thought made me more alert, and when the Scotch lad warned me that steps were coming our way, I implored him to hide deeper under the sails, if he wished, without consideration for me, as I had resolved to face my fate at once, and be either killed or cured.
"Thank ye kindly," said Alister, "but there's small use in hiding now.
They can but pitch us overboard, and I've read that drowning is by far an easier death than being starved, if ye come to that." It was in this frame of mind that a sailor found us, and took us prisoners with so little difficulty that he drew the scarcely fair conclusion that we were the cheekiest, coolest hands of all the nasty, sneaking, longshore loafers he had ever had to deal with in all his blessed and otherwise than blessed born days.

And wrathful as this outburst was, it was colourless to the indignation in his voice, when (replying to some questions from above) he answered, "Two on 'em!" Several other sailors came to the help of our captor, and we were dragged up the ladder and on deck, where the young Scotchman looked to better advantage than down below, and where I made the best presentment of myself that my miserable condition would allow.

We were soon hauled before the captain, a sensible-faced, red-bearded man, with a Scotch accent rather harsher than Alister's, in which he harangued us in very unflattering phrases for our attempt to "steal a passage," and described the evil fate of which we were certain, if we did not work uncommonly hard for our victuals.
With one breath I and my companion asserted our willingness to do anything, and that to get a free passage as idlers was our last wish and intention.

To this, amid appreciating chuckles from the crew, the captain replied, that, so sneaks and stowaways always _said_; a taunt which was too vulgar as repartee to annoy me, though I saw Alister's thin hands clenching at his sides.