He knows, obviously, that Hickey is a murderer; it's something he hasn't forgotten, and doesn't forgive, and only ignores day to day because there's little he can do about it. So it shouldn't be a surprise that this is another murder, but for some reason, it feel differently. Perhaps it's that the others had been during the extreme situation of the Expedition, with illness and lead poisoning and starvation and stress all wearing them down, and although it isn't an excuse for murder it's still somewhat different than this. Different from killing someone to steal their identity simply to go to a tropical island.
James realizes, suddenly, that he probably should just end Hickey. It's just the two of them here, and there's a very high chance that he could not just manage it but get away with it. He'd be eliminating a threat, and not just one that might resort to violence under extreme circumstances, but on a whim. Hickey isn't even actually one of his crew, so even that moral obligation--one that has been present, if dampened--feels entirely unwarranted. There's no real reason he shouldn't do it.
But he doesn't. He doesn't even move for his knife, and instead responds in his own controlled but far more tense tone.
"I chose all but a few names on the crew rosters, for both ships. All of the men who you have murdered were a part of this Expedition because I personally selected them."
He isn't saying it to make Hickey feel guilty or anything of the sort--he doesn't believe for a moment that's something that would happen--and in fact he's not entirely certain why he does say it. But perhaps it's a warning, in some sense; it had been personal before, what Hickey had done to Irving and all the others, and it isn't as though James actually knew the real Cornelius Hickey, but something about this new knowledge has changed things. That James hadn't also selected this Hickey, that he was an imposter who had killed his way onto Terror and then simply continued to cause as much harm as suited him.
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James realizes, suddenly, that he probably should just end Hickey. It's just the two of them here, and there's a very high chance that he could not just manage it but get away with it. He'd be eliminating a threat, and not just one that might resort to violence under extreme circumstances, but on a whim. Hickey isn't even actually one of his crew, so even that moral obligation--one that has been present, if dampened--feels entirely unwarranted. There's no real reason he shouldn't do it.
But he doesn't. He doesn't even move for his knife, and instead responds in his own controlled but far more tense tone.
"I chose all but a few names on the crew rosters, for both ships. All of the men who you have murdered were a part of this Expedition because I personally selected them."
He isn't saying it to make Hickey feel guilty or anything of the sort--he doesn't believe for a moment that's something that would happen--and in fact he's not entirely certain why he does say it. But perhaps it's a warning, in some sense; it had been personal before, what Hickey had done to Irving and all the others, and it isn't as though James actually knew the real Cornelius Hickey, but something about this new knowledge has changed things. That James hadn't also selected this Hickey, that he was an imposter who had killed his way onto Terror and then simply continued to cause as much harm as suited him.