Then again they reverted to Barbara, and the women crept more closely
together, like a flock of frightened sheep, when one older than the
others affirmed that no true maid could ever rest in the ocean's bed,
unless a Bible were slung about her neck; and as Dalton, of course, had
no Bible, their beloved Barbara could have no rest, but must wander to
all eternity on the foam of the white waves, or among the coral-rocks
that pave the southern seas, or sigh in the shrouds of a doomed ship.
But again, some other said, as she was so pure a Christian, perhaps that
would save her from such a fate; and one of the soldiers who sat with
them reproved their folly, and lectured, and prayed for their
edification, with much zeal and godliness; and when he had concluded,
the thought came upon them that the Reverend Jonas Fleetword had not
been there since the earliest morning, when somebody declared he was
seen talking with Sir Willmott Burrell near the Gull's Nest, and fear
for the preacher came over them all--why, they could not tell.