Explore "Moreton Bay" by F.W. Mole on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When the transport Ringarooma was ready to weigh anchor, the ship-broker and owners of the vessel came on board to give the master of the ship his final instructions and to supply him with a warrant to secure and keep in safe custody the prisoners entrusted to his charge and to enter into the necessary bonds to do so. The captain, agreeable to custom, entertained his company under an awning on the quarter deck, after which he ordered the guards to parade the convicts for their divertisement.
Captain Paul Lewis, who was an interested spectator, asked one of the guards to point out to him the notorious Nigel Lording, whose trial for the murder of Lord Belriven and the subsequent remission of his sentence from capital punishment to transportation for life, under dramatic circumstances, had caused such a sensation at the time. When the "lifer" was pointed out to him, he surveyed the convict with a cold scrutiny as if mentally measuring what amount of torture such a powerful and athletic man as the convict appeared to be, could bear before either confessing his crime or breaking down under discipline.