He did indeed reply to their questions in a careless, off-hand tone, but he never volunteered a remark.

The only difference between him and the others was his taciturnity and his size, for he was nearly, if not quite, as large a man as the captain.
During the remainder of the afternoon I was left to my own reflections, which were anything but agreeable, for I could not banish from my mind the threat about the thumb-screws, of the nature and use of which I had a vague but terrible conception.

I was still meditating on my unhappy fate when, just after night-fall, one of the watch on deck called down the hatchway,-- "Hallo there! one o' you, tumble up and light the cabin lamp, and send that boy aft to the captain--sharp!" "Now then, do you hear, youngster?
the captain wants you.

Look alive," said Bloody Bill, raising his huge frame from the locker on which he had been asleep for the last two hours.

He sprang up the ladder and I instantly followed him, and, going aft, was shown into the cabin by one of the men, who closed the door after me.
A small silver lamp which hung from a beam threw a dim soft light over the cabin, which was a small apartment, and comfortably but plainly finished.