I imagined a miniature golden dragon. It might be helpless and blind like a baby bird, fallen from the ledge into the bones, unseen, as the lava filled the cave. I shivered. The mother dragon survived, so maybe she had already rescued it when she found me at sea.

Mr. Darwin sighed deeply and rubbed his shock of wispy hair. “I will think on this long and hard, Covington, you have my word. But I cannot imagine the anatomy of an animal with four legs and then two extra limbs—the wings you describe. There is no animal with this physiology; it is simply not possible. And for a creature of that magnitude to lift itself off the ground and fly … It is against the laws of physics, dear boy.”

I sunk back onto the pillows. “You don’t believe me, but it’s the truth, sir.”

“I know you believe that. There is no shame in these imaginings, after the ordeal you have been through. No shame at all.”

Mr. Darwin would not believe me because he could not believe me. It was not his fault; I hadn’t believed it myself at first, when I thought it was a sky beast that had swept me into the air. Dragons just weren’t believable.

“Now, then. When you are feeling stronger, Bynoe advises you spend some time on deck. Your only duty is to make a full recovery. But I think keep … aspects … of your experience on Narborough Island between you and me. By all means share your adventure with the crew, but possibly omit the parts about …”

“The dragon,” I said.

Mr. Darwin nodded. I saw the sense in what he said. Being known as the poor boy who left his senses on a Galapagos island wasn’t going to help me. I needed to protect Farthing and those eggs.

I reached out to the chest beside my cot and Farthing butted my wrist.

The dragon’s eggs were safe. At that moment, I chose to believe they would hatch. And when they did, everyone would see the truth for themselves.

… love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man.

—CHARLES DARWIN,
THE DESCENT OF MAN

The next stop on our voyage was the Polynesian island of Tahiti, where green mountains rose out of lagoons of turquoise glass, surrounded by coral reefs. I was strong enough to go ashore and insisted Farthing come with me. The people were some of the friendliest we had met and paid little mind to the green lizard following me around. We stocked up on both meat and fruit. The sweet bananas made a welcome change after a month of eating only the fish we caught and Cook Phillips’s lobscouse. Lobscouse was midday rations—made with potato, onion, salt pork, and a pound of ship’s biscuit to soak it up.

New Zealand was different again. Mr. Darwin was impressed with the tree ferns but disappointed by the lack of animals. We were all impatient to leave. Maybe a lot of the sailors were keen to be back on English soil, but I wasn’t one of them. I had all I needed right there on board.