initial commit of ebook 9657HEADmain

4 files changed, 17418 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/7mutn10.txt b/old/7mutn10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cacb6f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/7mutn10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8709 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mutineers, by Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Mutineers
+
+Author: Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9657]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 13, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUTINEERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Lazar Liveanu
+and the PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE MUTINEERS
+
+
+
+_A tale of old days at sea and of adventures in the Far East as Benjamin
+Lathrop set it down some sixty years ago_
+
+
+
+by Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+
+
+
+
+_Illustrated_
+
+
+
+
+_To_ D.C.H.
+
+
+
+
+_TO PAY MY SHOT_
+
+
+_To master, mate, and men of the ship Hunter, whose voyage is the backbone
+of my story; to Captain David Woodard, English mariner, who more than a
+hundred and twenty years ago was wrecked on the island of Celebes; to
+Captain R.G.F. Candage of Brookline, Massachusetts, who was party to the
+original contract in melon seeds; and to certain blue-water skippers who
+have left sailing directions for eastern ports and seas, I am grateful for
+fascinating narratives and journals, and indebted for incidents in this
+tale of an earlier generation._
+
+_C.B.H._
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+IN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA
+
+    I My Father and I Call on Captain Whidden
+   II Bill Hayden
+  III The Man Outside the Galley
+   IV A Piece of Pie
+    V Kipping
+
+
+II
+IN WHICH WE ENCOUNTER AN ARAB SHIP
+
+   VI The Council in the Cabin
+
+  VII The Sail with a Lozenge-Shaped Patch
+ VIII Attacked
+   IX Bad Signs
+    X The Treasure-Seeker
+
+
+
+III
+WHICH APPROACHES A CRISIS
+
+   XI A Hundred Thousand Dollars in Gold
+  XII A Strange Tale
+ XIII Trouble Forward
+  XIV Bill Hayden Comes to the End of His Voyage
+
+
+
+IV
+IN WHICH THE TIDE OF OUR FORTUNES EBBS
+
+   XV Mr. Falk Tries to Cover His Tracks
+  XVI A Prayer for the Dead
+ XVII Marooned
+XVIII Adventures Ashore
+
+
+
+V
+IN WHICH THE TIDE TURNS
+
+  XIX In Last Resort
+   XX A Story in Melon Seeds
+  XXI New Allies
+ XXII We Attack
+XXIII What We Found in the Cabin
+
+
+
+VI
+IN WHICH WE REACH THE PORT OF OUR DESTINATION
+
+ XXIV Falk Proposes a Truce
+  XXV Including a Cross-Examination
+ XXVI An Attempt to Play on Our Sympathy
+XXVII We Reach Whampoa, but Not the End of Our Troubles
+
+
+
+VII
+OLD SCORES AND NEW AND A DOUBTFUL WELCOME
+
+XXVIII A Mystery Is Solved and a Thief Gets Away
+ XXIX Homeward Bound
+  XXX Through Sunda Strait
+ XXXI Pikes, Cutlasses, and Guns
+XXXII "So Ends"
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"_At 'em, men! At 'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull_!"
+
+_Suddenly, in the brief silence that followed the two thunderous reports, a
+pistol shot rang out sharply, and I saw Captain Whidden spin round and
+fall_.
+
+_We helped him pile his belongings into his chest ... and gave him a hand
+on deck_.
+
+"_Sign that statement, Lathrop," said Captain Falk_.
+
+_He cut from the melon-rind a roughly shaped model of a ship and stuck in
+it, to represent masts, three slivers of bamboo_.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_At 'em, men! At 'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull_!"]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+IN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MY FATHER AND I CALL ON CAPTAIN WHIDDEN
+
+
+My father's study, as I entered it on an April morning in 1809, to learn
+his decision regarding a matter that was to determine the course of all my
+life, was dim and spacious and far removed from the bustle and clamor of
+the harbor-side. It was a large room paneled with dark wood. There were
+books along the walls, and paintings of ships, and over the fireplace there
+stood a beautiful model of a Burmese junk, carved by some brown artist on
+the bank of the Irawadi.
+
+My father sat by the open window and looked out into the warm sunshine,
+which was swiftly driving the last snow from the hollows under the
+shrubbery.
+
+Already crocuses were blossoming in the grass of the year before, which was
+still green in patches, and the bright sun and the blue sky made the study
+seem to me, entering, dark and sombre. It was characteristic of my father,
+I thought with a flash of fancy, to sit there and look out into a warm, gay
+world where springtime was quickening the blood and sunshine lay warm on
+the flowers; he always had lived in old Salem, and as he wrote his sermons,
+he always had looked out through study windows on a world of commerce
+bright with adventure. For my own part, I was of no mind to play the
+spectator in so stirring a drama.
+
+With a smile he turned at my step. "So, my son, you wish to ship before the
+mast," he said, in a repressed voice and manner that seemed in keeping with
+the dim, quiet room. "Pray what do you know of the sea?"
+
+I thought the question idle, for all my life I had lived where I could look
+from my window out on the harbor.
+
+"Why, sir," I replied, "I know enough to realize that I want to follow the
+sea."
+
+"To follow the sea?"
+
+There was something in my father's eyes that I could not understand. He
+seemed to be dreaming, as if of voyages that he himself had made. Yet I
+knew he never had sailed blue water. "Well, why not?" he asked suddenly.
+"There was a time--"
+
+I was too young to realize then what has come to me since: that my father's
+manner revealed a side of his nature that I never had known; that in his
+own heart was a love of adventure that he never had let me see. My sixteen
+years had given me a big, strong body, but no great insight, and I thought
+only of my own urgent desire of the moment.
+
+"Many a boy of ten or twelve has gone to sea," I said, "and the Island
+Princess will sail in a fortnight. If you were to speak to Captain
+Whidden--"
+
+My father sternly turned on me. "No son of mine shall climb through the
+cabin windows."
+
+"But Captain Whidden--"
+
+"I thought you desired to follow the sea--to ship before the mast."
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then say no more of Captain Whidden. If you wish to go to sea, well and
+good. I'll not stand in your way. But we'll seek no favoritism, you and I.
+You'll ship as boy, but you'll take your medicine like a man."
+
+"Yes, sir," I said, trying perversely to conceal my joy.
+
+"And as for Captain Whidden," my father added, "you'll find he cuts a very
+different figure aboard ship from that he shows in our drawing-room."
+
+Then a smile twinkled through his severity, and he laid his hand firmly on
+my shoulder.
+
+"Son, you have my permission ungrudgingly given. There was a time--well,
+your grandfather didn't see things as I did."
+
+"But some day," I cried, "I'll have a counting-house of my own--
+some day--"
+
+My father laughed kindly, and I, taken aback, blushed at my own eagerness.
+
+"Anyway," I persisted, "Roger Hamlin is to go as supercargo."
+
+"Roger--as supercargo?" exclaimed a low voice.
+
+I turned and saw that my sister stood in the door.
+
+"Where--when is he going?"
+
+"To Canton on the Island Princess! And so am I," I cried.
+
+"Oh!" she said. And she stood there, silent and a little pale.
+
+"You'll not see much of Roger," my father remarked to me, still smiling. He
+had a way of enjoying a quiet joke at my expense, to him the more pleasing
+because I never was quite sure just wherein the humor lay.
+
+"But I'm going," I cried. "I'm going--I'm going--I'm going!"
+
+"At the end of the voyage," said my father, "we'll find out whether you
+still wish to follow the sea. After all, I'll go with you this evening,
+when supper is done, to see Joseph Whidden."
+
+The lamps were lighted when we left the house, and long beams from the
+windows fell on the walk and on the road. We went down the street side by
+side, my father absently swinging his cane, I wondering if it were not
+beneath the dignity of a young man about to go to sea that his parent
+should accompany him on such an errand.
+
+Just as we reached the corner, a man who had come up the street a little
+distance behind us turned in at our own front gate, and my father, seeing
+me look back when the gate slammed, smiled and said, "I'll venture a guess,
+Bennie-my-lad, that some one named Roger is calling at our house this
+evening."
+
+Afterwards--long, long afterwards--I remembered the incident.
+
+When my father let the knocker fall against Captain Whidden's great front
+door, my heart, it seemed to me, echoed the sound and then danced away at a
+lively pace. A servant, whom I watched coming from somewhere behind the
+stairs, admitted us to the quiet hall; then another door opened silently, a
+brighter light shone out upon us, and a big, grave man appeared. He
+welcomed us with a few thoughtful words and, by a motion of his hand, sent
+us before him into the room where he had been sitting.
+
+"And so," said Captain Whidden, when we had explained our errand, "I am to
+have this young man aboard my ship."
+
+"If you will, sir," I cried eagerly, yet anxiously, too, for he did not
+seem nearly so well pleased as I had expected.
+
+"Yes, Ben, you may come with us to Canton; but as your father says, you
+must fill your own boots and stand on your own two feet. And will you,
+friend Lathrop,"--he turned to my father,--"hazard a venture on the
+voyage?"
+
+
+My father smiled. "I think, Joe," he said, "that I've placed a considerable
+venture in your hands already."
+
+Captain Whidden nodded. "So you have, so you have. I'll watch it as best I
+can, too, though of course I'll see little of the boy. Let him go now. I'll
+talk with you a while if I may."
+
+My father glanced at me, and I got up.
+
+Captain Whidden rose, too. "Come down in the morning," he said. "You can
+sign with us at the Websters' counting-house.--And good-bye, Ben," he
+added, extending his hand.
+
+"Good-bye? You don't mean--that I'm not to go with you?"
+
+He smiled. "It'll be a long time, Ben, before you and I meet again on quite
+such terms as these."
+
+Then I saw what he meant, and shook his hand and walked away without
+looking back. Nor did I ever learn what he and my father talked about after
+I left them there together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BILL HAYDEN
+
+
+More than two-score years and ten have come and gone since that day when I,
+Benjamin Lathrop, put out from Salem harbor, a green hand on the ship
+Island Princess, and in them I have achieved, I think I can say with due
+modesty, a position of some importance in my own world. But although
+innumerable activities have crowded to the full each intervening year,
+neither the aspirations of youth nor the successes of maturity nor the
+dignities of later life have effaced from my memory the picture of myself,
+a boy on the deck of the Island Princess in April, 1809.
+
+I thought myself very grand as the wind whipped my pantaloons against my
+ankles and flapped the ribbons of the sailor hat that I had pulled snugly
+down; and I imagined myself the hero of a thousand stirring adventures in
+the South Seas, which I should relate when I came back an able seaman at
+the very least. Never was sun so bright; never were seas so blue; never was
+ship so smart as the Island Princess.
+
+On her black hull a nicely laid band of white ran sheer from stem to stern;
+her bows swelled to meet the seas in a gentle curve that hinted the swift
+lines of our clippers of more recent years. From mainmast heel to truck,
+from ensign halyard to tip of flying jib-boom, her well-proportioned masts
+and spars and taut rigging stood up so trimly in one splendidly
+cooerdinating structure, that the veriest lubber must have acknowledged her
+the finest handiwork of man.
+
+It was like a play to watch the men sitting here and there on deck, or
+talking idly around the forecastle, while Captain Whidden and the chief
+mate conferred together aft. I was so much taken with it all that I had no
+eyes for my own people who were there to see me off, until straight out
+from the crowded wharf there came a young man whom I knew well. His gray
+eyes, firm lips, square chin, and broad shoulders had been familiar to me
+ever since I could remember.
+
+As he was rowed briskly to the ship, I waved to him and called out, "O
+Roger--ahoy!"
+
+I thought, when he glanced up from the boat, that his gray eyes twinkled
+and that there was the flutter of a smile on his well-formed lips; but he
+looked at me and through me and seemed not to see me, and it came over me
+all at once that from the cabin to the forecastle was many, many times the
+length of the ship.
+
+With a quick survey of the deck, as if to see who had spoken, yet seeming
+not to see me at all, Roger, who had lived all his life within a cable's
+length of the house where I was born, who had taught me to box the compass
+before I learned my ABC's, whose interest in my own sister had partly
+mystified, partly amused her younger brother--that very Roger climbed
+aboard the Island Princess and went on into the cabin without word or sign
+of recognition.
+
+It was not the first time, of course, that I had realized what my chosen
+apprenticeship involved; but the incident brought it home to me more
+clearly than ever before. No longer was I to be known as the son of Thomas
+Lathrop. In my idle dreams I had been the hero of a thousand imaginary
+adventures; instead, in the strange experiences I am about to relate, I was
+to be only the ship's "boy"--the youngest and least important member of
+that little isolated community banded together for a journey to the other
+side of the world. But I was to see things happen such as most men have
+never dreamed of; and now, after fifty years, when the others are dead and
+gone, I may write the story.
+
+When I saw that my father, who had watched Roger Hamlin with twinkling eyes
+ignore my greeting, was chuckling in great amusement, I bit my lip. What if
+Roger _was_ supercargo, I thought: he needn't feel so big.
+
+Now on the wharf there was a flutter of activity and a stir of color; now a
+louder hum of voices drifted across the intervening water. Captain Whidden
+lifted his hand in farewell to his invalid wife, who had come in her
+carriage to see him sail. The mate went forward on the forecastle and the
+second mate took his position in the waist.
+
+"Now then, Mr. Thomas," Captain Whidden called in a deep voice, "is all
+clear forward?"
+
+"All clear, sir," the mate replied; and then, with all eyes upon him, he
+took charge, as was the custom, and proceeded to work the ship.
+
+While the men paid out the riding cable and tripped it, and hove in the
+slack of the other, I stood, carried away--foolish boy!--by the thought
+that here at last I was a seaman among seamen, until at my ear the second
+mate cried sharply, "Lay forward, there, and lend a hand to cat the
+anchor."
+
+The sails flapped loose overhead; orders boomed back and forth; there was
+running and racing and hauling and swarming up the rigging; and from the
+windlass came the chanteyman's solo with its thunderous chorus:--
+
+    "Pull one and all!
+      Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men.
+    On this catfall!
+      Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men.
+    Answer the call!
+      Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men.
+    Hoy! Haulee!
+      Hoy! Hoy!!!
+        Oh, cheery men!"
+
+As the second anchor rose to the pull of the creaking windlass, we sheeted
+home the topsails, topgallantsails and royals and hoisted them up, braced
+head-yards aback and after-yards full for the port tack, hoisted the jib
+and put over the helm. Thus the Island Princess fell off by the head, as we
+catted and fished the anchor; then took the wind in her sails and slipped
+slowly out toward the open sea.
+
+Aft, by the lee rail, I saw Roger Hamlin watching the group, a little apart
+from the others, where my own people had gathered. My father stood half a
+head above the crowd, and beside him were my mother and my sister. When I,
+too, looked back at them, my father waved his hat and I knew his eyes were
+following me; I saw the flutter of white from my mother's hand, and I knew
+that her heart was going out with me to the uttermost parts of the earth.
+
+Then, almost timidly, my sister waved her handkerchief. But I saw that she
+was looking at the quarter-deck.
+
+As land fell astern until it became a thin blue line on the western
+horizon, and as the Island Princess ran free with the wind full in her
+sails, I took occasion, while I jumped back and forth in response to the
+mate's quick orders, to study curiously my shipmates in our little kingdom.
+Now that we had no means of communication with that already distant shore,
+we were a city unto ourselves.
+
+Yonder was the cook, a man as black as the bottom of his iron pot, whose
+frown, engraved deeply in his low forehead, might have marked him in my
+eyes as the villain of some melodrama of the sea, had I not known him for
+many years to be one of the most generous darkies, so far as hungry small
+boys were concerned, that ever ruled a galley. The second mate, who was now
+in the waist, I had never seen before--to tell the truth, I was glad that
+he held no better berth, for I disliked the turn of his too full lips.
+Captain Whidden and the chief mate, Mr. Thomas, I had known a long time,
+and I had thought myself on terms of friendship with them, even
+familiarity; but so far as any outward sign was concerned, I might now have
+been as great a stranger to either as to the second mate.
+
+We were twenty-two men all told: four in the cabin--Captain  Whidden, Mr.
+Thomas, Mr. Falk, and Roger, whose duties included oversight of the cargo,
+supervision of matters purely of business and trade in foreign ports, and a
+deal of clerical work that Captain Whidden had no mind to be bothered with;
+three in the steerage--the cook (contrary, perhaps, to the more usual
+custom), the steward, and the carpenter; and fourteen in the forecastle.
+
+All in all I was well pleased with my prospects, and promised myself that I
+would "show them a thing or two," particularly Roger Hamlin. I'd make a
+name for myself aboard the Island Princess. I'd let all the men know that
+it would not take Benjamin Lathrop long to become as smart a seaman as
+they'd hope to see.
+
+Silly lad that I was!
+
+Within twenty minutes of that idle dream the chain of circumstances had
+begun that was to bring every man aboard the Island Princess face to face
+with death. Like the small dark cloud that foreruns a typhoon, the first
+act in the wild drama that came near to costing me my own life was so
+slight, so insignificant relatively, that no man of us then dreamed of the
+hidden forces that brought it to pass.
+
+On the forecastle by the larboard rigging stood a big, broad-shouldered
+fellow, who nodded familiarly at the second mate, cast a bit of a leer at
+the captain as if to impress on the rest of us his own daring and
+independence, and gave me, when I caught his eye, a cold, noncommittal
+stare. His name, I shortly learned, was Kipping. Undeniably he was
+impudent; but he had, nevertheless, a mild face and a mild manner, and when
+I heard him talk, I discovered that he had a mild voice; I could find no
+place for him in the imaginary adventures that filled my mind--he was quite
+too mild a man.
+
+I perceived that he was soldiering at his work, and almost at the same
+moment I saw the mate come striding down on him.
+
+"You there," Mr. Thomas snapped out, "bear a hand! Do you think you're
+waiting for the cows to come home?"
+
+"No-o-o, sir," the mild man drawled, starting to walk across the deck.
+
+The slow reply, delivered with a mocking inflection, fanned to sudden
+laughter chuckles that the mate's words had caused.
+
+
+Mr. Thomas reddened and, stepping out, thrust his face close to the
+other's. "You try any of your slick tricks on me, my man," he said slowly
+and significantly, "you try any of your slick tricks on me, and so help me,
+I'll show you."
+
+"Ye-e-es, sir," the man replied with the same inflection, though not so
+pronounced this time.
+
+Suddenly the deck became very still. The listeners checked their laughter.
+Behind me I heard some one mutter, "Hear that, will you?" Glancing around,
+I saw that Captain Whidden had gone below and that Mr. Thomas was in
+command. I was confident that the mild seaman was mocking the mate, yet so
+subtle was his challenge, you could not be sure that he actually was
+defiant.
+
+Although Mr. Thomas obviously shared the opinion of the men, there was so
+little on which to base a charge of insubordination or affront that he
+momentarily hesitated.
+
+"What is your name?" he suddenly demanded.
+
+"Kipping, sir," the mild man replied.
+
+This time there was only the faintest suggestion of the derisive
+inflection. After all, it might have been but a mannerism. The man had such
+a mild face and such a mild manner!
+
+"Well, Kipping, you go about your work, and after this, let me warn you,
+keep busy and keep a civil tongue in your head. We'll have no slick tricks
+aboard this ship, and the sooner you men realize it, the easier it will be
+for all hands."
+
+Turning, the mate went back to the quarter-deck and resumed his station by
+the weather rail.
+
+While his back was toward us, however, and just as I myself, who had
+listened, all ears, to the exchange of words between them, was turning to
+the forecastle, I saw--or  thought I saw--on Kipping's almost averted face
+just such a leer as I had seen him cast at the captain, followed, I could
+have taken my oath, by a shameless wink. When he noticed me gazing at him,
+open-mouthed, he gave me such another cold stare as he had given me before
+and, muttering something under his breath, walked away.
+
+I looked aft to discover at whom he could have winked, but I saw only the
+second mate, who scowled at me angrily.
+
+"Now what," thought I, "can all this mean?" Then, being unable to make
+anything of it, I forgot it and devoted myself industriously to my own
+affairs until the hoarse call of "All hands on deck" brought the men who
+were below tumbling up, to be summoned aft and addressed by the captain.
+
+Apparently Captain Whidden was not aware that there was a soul on board
+ship except himself. With his eyes on the sea and his hands clasped behind
+him, he paced the deck, while we fidgeted and twisted and grew more and
+more impatient. At last, with a sort of a start, as if he had just seen
+that we were waiting, he stopped and surveyed us closely. He was a fine
+figure of a man and he affected the fashions of a somewhat earlier day.
+A beaver with sweeping brim surmounted his strong, smooth-shaven face, and
+a white stock, deftly folded, swathed his throat to his resolute chin. Trim
+waistcoat, ample coat, and calmly folded arms completed his picture as he
+stood there, grave yet not severe, waiting to address us.
+
+What he said to us in his slow, even voice was the usual speech of a
+captain in those times; and except for a finer dignity than common, he did
+not deviate from the well-worn customary phrases until he had outlined the
+voyage that lay before us and had summed up the advantages of prompt,
+willing obedience and the penalties of any other course. His tone then
+suddenly changed. "If any man here thinks that he can give me slovenly work
+or back talk and arguing," he said, "it'll be better for that man if he
+jumps overboard and swims for shore." I was certain--and I still am--that
+he glanced sharply at Kipping, who stood with a faint, nervous smile,
+looking at no one in particular. "Well, Mr. Thomas," he said at last,
+"we'll divide the watches. Choose your first man."
+
+When we went forward, I found myself, as the green hand of the voyage, one
+of six men in the starboard watch. I liked the arrangement little enough,
+for the second mate commanded us and Kipping was the first man he had
+chosen; but it was all in the day's work, so I went below to get my jacket
+before eight bells should strike.
+
+The voices in the forecastle suddenly stopped when my feet sounded on the
+steps; but as soon as the men saw that it was only the boy, they resumed
+their discussion without restraint.
+
+"I tell you," some one proclaimed from the darkest corner, "the second
+mate, he had it all planned to get the chief mate's berth this voyage, and
+the captain, he put him out no end because he wouldn't let him have it.
+Yes, sir. And he bears a grudge against the mate, he does, him and that sly
+friend of his, Kipping. Perhaps you didn't see Kipping wink at the second
+mate after he was called down. I did, and I says to myself then, says I,
+'There's going to be troublous times ere this voyage is over.' Yes, sir."
+
+"Right you are, Davie!" a higher, thinner voice proclaimed, "right you are.
+I was having my future told, I was, and the lady--"
+
+A roar of laughter drowned the words of the luckless second speaker, and
+some one yelled vociferously, "Neddie the fortune-teller! Don't tell me
+he's shipped with us again!"
+
+"But I tell you," Neddie persisted shrilly, "I tell you they hit it right,
+they do, often. And the lady, she says, 'Neddie Benson, don't you go
+reckless on this next voyage. There's trouble in store,' she says.
+'There'll be a dark man and a light man, and a terrible danger.' And I paid
+the lady two dollars and I--"
+
+Again laughter thundered in the forecastle.
+
+"All the same," the deep-voiced Davie growled, "that sly, slippery--"
+
+"Hist!" A man raised his hand against the light that came faintly from on
+deck.
+
+Then a mild voice asked, "What are you men quidding about anyway? One of
+you's sitting on my chest."
+
+"Listen to them talk," some one close beside me whispered. "You'd think
+this voyage was all of life, the way they run on about it. Now it don't
+mean so much to me. My name's Bill Hayden, and I've got a little wee girl,
+I have, over to Newburyport, that will be looking for her dad to come home.
+Two feet long she is, and cute as they make them."
+
+Aware that the speaker was watching me closely, I perfunctorily nodded. At
+that he edged nearer. "Now I'm glad we're in the same watch," he said. "So
+many men just cut a fellow off with a curse."
+
+I observed him more sharply, and saw that he was a stupid-looking but
+rather kindly soul whose hair was just turning gray.
+
+"Now I wish you could see that little girl of mine," he continued. "Cute?
+there ain't no word to tell you how cute she is. All a-laughing and
+gurgling and as good as gold. Why, she ain't but a little old, and yet she
+can stand right up on her two little legs as cute as you please."
+
+I listened with mild interest as he rambled on. He seemed such a friendly,
+homely soul that I could but regard him more kindly than I did some of our
+keener-witted fellow seamen.
+
+Now we heard faintly the bell as it struck, _clang-clang, clang-clang,
+clang-clang_. Feet scuffled overhead, and some one called down the hatch,
+"Eight bells, starbow-lines ahoy!"
+
+Davie's deep voice replied sonorously, "Ay-ay!" And one after another we
+climbed out on deck, where the wind from the sea blew cool on our faces.
+
+I had mounted the first rung of the ladder, and was regularly signed as a
+member of the crew of the Island Princess, bound for Canton with a cargo of
+woolen goods and ginseng. There was much that puzzled me aboard-ship--the
+discontent of the second mate, the perversity of the man Kipping (others
+besides myself had seen that wink), and a certain undercurrent of
+pessimism. But although I was separated a long, long way from my old
+friends in the cabin, I felt that in Bill Hayden I had found a friend of a
+sort; then, as I began my first real watch on deck at sea, I fell to
+thinking of my sister and Roger Hamlin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MAN OUTSIDE THE GALLEY
+
+
+Strange events happened in our first month at sea--events so subtle as
+perhaps to seem an unimportant part of this narrative of a strange voyage,
+yet really as necessary to the foundation of the story as the single bricks
+and the single dabs of mortar at the base of a tall chimney are necessary
+to the completed structure. I later had cause to remember each trivial
+incident as if it had been written in letters of fire.
+
+In the first dog watch one afternoon, when we were a few days out of port,
+I was sitting with my back against the forward deck-house, practising
+splices and knots with a bit of rope that I had saved for the purpose. I
+was only a couple of feet from the corner, so of course I heard what was
+going on just out of sight.
+
+The voices were low but distinct.
+
+"Now leave me alone!" It was Bill Hayden who spoke. "I ain't never troubled
+you."
+
+"Ah, so you ain't troubled me, have you, you whimpering old dog?"
+
+"No, I ain't troubled you."
+
+"Oh, no! You was so glad to let me take your nice dry boots, you was, when
+mine was filled with water."
+
+The slow, mild, ostensibly patient voice could be none other than
+Kipping's.
+
+"I had to wear 'em myself."
+
+"Oh, had to wear 'em yourself, did you?"
+
+"Let go o' my arm!"
+
+"So?"
+
+"Let go, I tell you; let go or I'll--I swear I'll hammer you good."
+
+"Oh, you'll hammer me good, will you?"
+
+"Let go!"
+
+There was a sudden scuffle, then out from the corner of the deck-house
+danced Kipping with both hands pressed over his jaw.
+
+"You bloody scoundrel!" he snarled, meek no longer. "You wait--I'll get
+you. I'll--" Seeing me sitting there with my bit of rope, he stopped short;
+then, with a sneer, he walked away.
+
+Amazed at the sudden departure of his tormentor, Bill Hayden stuck his own
+head round the corner and in turn discovered me in my unintentional
+hiding-place.
+
+Bill, however, instead of departing in chagrin, joined me with a puzzled
+expression on his kind, stupid face.
+
+"I don't understand that Kipping," he said sadly. "I've tried to use him
+right. I've done everything I can to help him out and I'm sure I don't want
+to quarrel with him, yet for all he goes around as meek as a cat that's
+been in the cream, he's always pecking at me and pestering me, till just
+now I was fair drove to give him a smart larrup."
+
+Why, indeed, should Kipping or any one else molest good, dull old Bill
+Hayden?
+
+"I'm a family man, I am," Bill continued, "with a little girl at home. I
+ain't a-bothering no one. I'm sure all I want is to be left alone."
+
+For a time we sat in silence, watching the succession of blue waves through
+which the Island Princess cut her swift and almost silent passage. A man
+must have been a cowardly bully to annoy harmless old Bill. Yet even then,
+young though I was, I realized that sometimes there is no more dangerous
+man than a coward and a bully, "He's great friends with the second mate,"
+Bill remarked at last. "And the second mate has got no use at all for Mr.
+Thomas because he thought he was going to get Mr. Thomas's berth and
+didn't; and for the same reason he don't like the captain. Well, I'm glad
+he's only _second mate_. He ain't got his hands out of the tar-bucket yet,
+my boy."
+
+"How do you know he expected to get the mate's berth?" I asked.
+
+"It's common talk, my boy. The supercargo's the only man aft he's got any
+manner of use for, and cook says the steward says Mr. Hamlin ain't got no
+manner of use for him. There you are."
+
+"No," I thought,--though I discreetly said nothing,--"Roger Hamlin is not
+the man to be on friendly terms with a fellow of the second mate's
+calibre."
+
+And from that time on I watched Mr. Falk, the second mate, and the
+mild-voiced Kipping more closely than ever--so closely that one night I
+stumbled on a surprising discovery.
+
+Ours was the middle watch, and Mr. Falk as usual was on the quarter-deck.
+By moonlight I saw him leaning on the weather rail as haughtily as if he
+were the master. His slim, slightly stooped figure, silhouetted against the
+moonlit sea, was unmistakable. But the winds were inconstant and drifting
+clouds occasionally obscured the moon. Watching, I saw him distinctly;
+then, as the moonlight darkened, the after part of the ship became as a
+single shadow against a sea almost as black. While I still watched, there
+came through a small fissure in the clouds a single moonbeam that swept
+from the sea across the quarter-deck and on over the sea again. By that
+momentary light I saw that Mr. Falk had left the weather rail.
+
+Certainly it was a trifling thing to consider twice, but you must remember,
+in the first place, that I was only a boy, with all a boy's curiosity about
+trifles, and in the second place that of the four men in the cabin no other
+derived such obvious satisfaction from the minor prerogatives of office as
+Mr. Falk. He fairly swelled like a frog in the sun as he basked in the
+prestige that he attributed to himself when, left in command, he occupied
+the captain's place at the weather rail.
+
+Immediately I decided that under the cover of darkness I would see what had
+become of him. So I ran lightly along in the shelter of the lee bulwark,
+dodging past the galley, the scuttle-butt, and the cabin in turn. At the
+quarter-deck I hesitated, knowing well that a sound thrashing was the least
+I could expect if Mr. Falk discovered me trespassing on his own territory,
+yet lured by a curiosity that was the stronger for the vague rumors on
+which it had fed.
+
+On hands and knees I stopped by the farther corner of the cabin. Clouds
+still hid the moon and low voices came to my ears. Very cautiously I peeked
+from my hiding-place, and saw that Mr. Falk and the helmsman had put their
+heads together and were talking earnestly.
+
+While they talked, the helmsman suddenly laughed and prodded Mr. Falk in
+the ribs with his thumb. Like a flash it came over me that it was Kipping's
+trick at the wheel. Here was absolute proof that, when the second mate and
+the mild man thought no one was spying upon them, they were on uncommonly
+friendly terms. Yet I did not dream that I had stumbled on anything graver
+than to confirm one of those idle rumors that set tongues wagging in the
+forecastle, but that really are too trifling to be worth a second thought.
+
+When the crew of a ship is cut off from all communication with the world at
+large, it is bound, for want of greater interests, to find in the
+monotonous daily round something about which to weave a pretty tale.
+
+At that moment, to my consternation, the bell struck four times. As the two
+dark figures separated, I started back out of sight. Kipping's trick at the
+wheel was over, and his relief would come immediately along the very route
+that I had chosen; unless I got away at once I should in all probability be
+discovered on the quarterdeck and trounced within an inch of my life. Then
+suddenly, as if to punish my temerity, the cloud passed and the moonlight
+streamed down on deck.
+
+Darting lightly back to the companion-ladder, I slipped down it and was on
+the point of escaping forward when I heard slow steps. In terror lest the
+relief spy me and reveal my presence by some exclamation that Kipping or
+the second mate would overhear, I threw myself down flat on the deck just
+forward of the scuttle-butt, where the moon cast a shadow; and with the
+fervent hope that I should appear to be only a heap of old sail, I lay
+without moving a muscle.
+
+The steps came slowly nearer. They had passed, I thought, when a pause set
+my heart to jumping madly. Then came a low, cautious whisper:--
+
+"You boy, what you doin' dah?"
+
+It was not the relief after all. It was the good old villainous-looking
+black cook, with a cup of coffee for Mr. Falk.
+
+"Put yo' head down dah," he whispered, "put yo' head down, boy."
+
+With a quick motion of his hand he jerked some canvas from the butt so that
+it concealed me, and went on, followed by the quick steps of the real
+relief.
+
+Now I heard voices, but the only words I could distinguish were in the
+cook's deep drawl.
+
+"Yass, sah, yass, sah. Ah brought yo' coffee, sah, Yass, sah, Ah'll wait
+fo' yo' cup, sah."
+
+Next came Kipping's step--a mild step, if there is such a thing; even in
+his bullying the man was mild. Then came the slow, heavy tread of the
+returning African.
+
+Flicking the canvas off me, he muttered, "All's cleah fo' you to git away,
+boy. How you done come to git in dis yeh scrape sho' am excruciatin'. You
+just go 'long with you while dey's a chanst."
+
+So, carrying with me the very unimportant discovery that I had made, I ran
+cautiously forward, away from the place where I had no business to be.
+
+When, in the morning, just before eight bells, I was sent to the galley
+with the empty kids, I found the worthy cook in a solemn mood.
+
+"You boy," he said, fixing on me a stare, which his deeply graven frown
+rendered the more severe, "you boy, what you think you gwine do, prowlin'
+round all hours? Hey? You tell dis nigger dat. Heah Ah's been and put you
+onto all de ropes and give you more infohmative disco'se about ships and
+how to behave on 'em dan eveh Ah give a green hand befo' in all de years Ah
+been gwine to sea, and heah you's so tarnation foolish as go prowlin' round
+de quarter-deck whar you's like to git skun alive if Mistah Falk ketches
+you."
+
+I don't remember what I replied, but I am sure it was flippant; to the day
+of my death I shall never forget the stinging, good-natured cuff with which
+the cook knocked my head against the wall. "Sho' now," he growled, "go
+'long!"
+
+I was not yet ready to go. "Tell me, doctor," I said, "does the second mate
+get on well with the others in the cabin?"
+
+The title mollified him somewhat, but he still felt that he must uphold the
+dignity of his office. "Sho' now, what kind of a question is dat fo' a
+ship's boy to be askin' de cook?" He glanced at me suspiciously, then
+challenged me directly, "Who put dose idea' in yo' head?"
+
+By the tone of the second question, which was quite too straightforward to
+be confused with the bantering that we usually exchanged, I knew that he
+was willing, if diplomatically coaxed, to talk frankly. I then said
+cautiously, "Every one thinks so, but you're the only man forward that's
+likely to know."
+
+"Now ain't dat jest like de assumptivity of dem dah men in de forecastle.
+How'd Ah know dat kind of contraptiveness, tell me?"
+
+Looking closely at me he began to rattle his pans at a great rate while I
+waited in silence. He was not accomplishing much; indeed, he really was
+throwing things into a state of general disorder. But I observed that he
+was working methodically round the galley toward where I stood, until at
+last he bumped into me and started as if he hadn't known that I was there
+at all.
+
+"You boy," he cried, "you still heah?" He scowled at me with a particularly
+savage intensity, then suddenly leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder.
+"You's right, boy," he whispered. "He ain't got no manner of use foh dem
+other gen'lems, and what's mo', dey ain't got no manner of use foh him.
+Ah's telling you, boy, it's darn lucky, you bet, dat Mistah Falk he eats at
+second table. Yass, sah. Hark! dah's de bell--eight bells! Yo' watch on
+deck, hey?" After a short pause, he whispered, "Boy, you come sneakin'
+round to-morrow night when dat yeh stew'd done gone to bed, an' Ah'll jest
+gadder you up a piece of pie f'om Cap'n's table--yass, sah! Eight bells is
+struck. Go 'long, you." And shoving me out of his little kingdom, the
+villainous-looking darky sent after me a savage scowl, which I translated
+rightly as a token of his high regard and sincere friendship.
+
+In my delight at the promised treat, and in my haste to join the watch, I
+gave too little heed to where I was going, and shot like a bullet squarely
+against a man who had been standing just abaft the galley window. He
+collapsed with a grunt. My shoulder had knocked the wind completely out of
+him.
+
+"Ugh!--" he gasped--"ugh! You son of perdition--ugh! Why in thunder don't
+you look where you're running--ugh!--I'll break your rascally young
+neck--ugh--when I get my wind."
+
+It was Kipping, and for the second time he had lost his mildness.
+
+As he clutched at me fiercely, I dodged and fled. Later, when I was hauling
+at his side, he seemed to have forgotten the accident; but I knew well
+enough that he had not. He was not the kind that forgets accidents. His
+silence troubled me. How much, I wondered, had he heard of what was going
+on in the galley?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A PIECE OF PIE
+
+
+At two bells there sounded the sonorous call, "Sail ho!"
+
+"Where away?" cried Mr. Falk.
+
+"One point off the larboard bow."
+
+In all the days since we had lost sight of land, we had seen but one other
+sail, which had appeared only to disappear again beyond the horizon. It
+seemed probable, however, that we should speak this second vessel, a brig
+whose course crossed our own. Captain Whidden came on deck and assumed
+command, and the men below, getting wind of the excitement, trooped up and
+lined the bulwarks forward. Our interest, which was already considerable,
+became even keener when the stranger hove out a signal of distress. We took
+in all studding-sails and topgallantsails fore and aft, and lay by for her
+about an hour after we first had sighted her.
+
+Over the water, when we were within hailing distance, came the cry: "Ship
+ahoy!"
+
+Captain Whidden held the speaking trumpet. "Hullo!"
+
+"What ship is that, pray?"
+
+"The ship Island Princess, from Salem, bound to Canton. Where are you
+from?"
+
+"The brig Adventure, bound from the Straits to Boston. Our foretopmast was
+carried away four hours ago. Beware of--"
+
+Losing the next words, the Captain called, "I didn't hear that last."
+
+"Beware,"--came again the warning cry, booming deeply over the sea while
+one and all we strained to hear it--"beware of any Arab ship. Arabs have
+captured the English ship Alert and have murdered her captain and fifteen
+men."
+
+Squaring her head-yards, the brig dropped her mainsail, braced her cross
+jack-yard sharp aback, put her helm a-weather and got sternway, while her
+after sails and helm kept her to the wind. So she fell off from us and the
+two vessels passed, perhaps never to meet again.
+
+Both forward and aft, we aboard the Island Princess were sober men. Kipping
+and the second mate were talking quietly together, I saw (I saw, too, that
+Captain Whidden and some of the others were watching them sharply) Mr.
+Thomas and Roger Hamlin were leaning side by side upon the rail, and
+forward the men were gathering in groups. It was indeed an ominous message
+that the brig had given us. But supper broke the tension, and afterwards a
+more cheerful atmosphere prevailed.
+
+As I was sweeping down the deck next day, Roger, to my great surprise,--for
+by now I was accustomed to his amused silence,--came and spoke to me with
+something of the old, humorous freedom that was so characteristic of him.
+
+"Well, Bennie," said he, "we're quite a man now, are we not?"
+
+"We are," I replied shortly. Although I would not for a great deal have
+given him the satisfaction of knowing it, I had been much vexed, secretly,
+by his rigidly ignoring me.
+
+"Bennie," he said in a low voice, "is there trouble brewing in the
+forecastle?"
+
+I was startled. "Why, no. I've seen no sign of trouble."
+
+"No one has talked to you, then?"
+
+"Not in such a way as you imply."
+
+"Hm! Keep your eyes and ears open, anyway, and if you hear anything that
+sounds like trouble, let me know--quietly, mind you, even secretly."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"We are carrying a valuable cargo, and we have very particular orders. All
+must be thus and so,--exactly thus and so,--and it means more to the
+owners, Bennie, than I think you realize. Now you go on with your work. But
+remember--eyes and ears open."
+
+That night, as I watched the restless sea and the silent stars, my
+imagination was stirred as never before. I felt the mystery and wonder of
+great distances and far places. We were so utterly alone! Except for the
+passing hail of some stranger, we had cut ourselves off for months from all
+communication with the larger world. Whatever happened aboard ship, in
+whatever straits we found ourselves, we must depend solely upon our own
+resources; and already it appeared that some of our shipmates were scheming
+and intriguing against one another. Thus I meditated, until the boyish and
+more natural, perhaps more wholesome, thought of the cook's promise came to
+me.
+
+Pie! My remembrance of pie was almost as intangible as a pleasant dream
+might be some two days later. With care to escape observation, I made my
+way to the galley and knocked cautiously.
+
+"Who's dah?" asked softly the old cook, who had barricaded himself for the
+night according to his custom, and was smoking a villainously rank pipe.
+
+"It's Ben Lathrop," I whispered.
+
+"What you want heah?" the cook demanded.
+
+"The pie you promised me," I answered.
+
+"Humph! Ain't you fo'got dat pie yet? You got de most miraculous memorizer
+eveh Ah heared of. You wait."
+
+I heard him fumbling inside the galley; then he opened the door and stepped
+out on deck as if he had just decided to take a breath of fresh air. Upon
+seeing me, he pretended to start with great surprise, and exclaimed rather
+more loudly than before:--
+
+"What you doin' heah, boy, at dis yeh hour o' night?"
+
+But all this was only crafty by-play. Having made sure, so he thought,
+that no one was in sight, he grabbed me by the collar and yanked me into
+the galley, at the same time shutting the door so that I almost stifled in
+the rank smoke with which he had filled the place.
+
+Scowling fiercely, he reached into a little cupboard and drew out half an
+apple pie that to my eager eyes seemed as big as a half moon on a clear
+night.
+
+
+"Dah," he said. "Eat it up. Mistah Falk, he tell stew'd he want pie and he
+gotta have pie, and stew'd he come and he say, 'Frank,' says he, 'dat
+Mistah Falk, his langwidge is like he is in liquo'. He _gotta_ have pie.'
+'All right,' Ah say, 'if he gotta have pie, he gotta wait twill Ah make
+pie. Cap'n, he et hearty o' pie lately.' Stew'd he say, 'Cap'n ain't had
+but one piece and Mistah Thomas, he ain't had but one piece, and Mistah
+Hamlin, he ain't had any. Dah's gotta be pie. You done et dat pie yo'se'f,'
+says he. 'Oh, no,' says Ah. 'Ah never et no pie. You fo'get 'bout dat pie
+you give Cap'n foh breakfas'.' Den stew'd he done crawl out. He don' know
+Ah make two pies yestidday. Dat's how come Ah have pie foh de boy. Boys dey
+need pie to make 'em grow. It's won'erful foh de indignation, pie is."
+
+I was appalled by the hue and cry that my half-circle of pastry had
+occasioned, and more than a little fearful of the consequences if the truth
+ever should transpire; but the pie in hand was compensation for many such
+intangible difficulties in the future, and I was making great inroads on a
+wedge of it, when I thought I heard a sound outside the window, which the
+cook had masked with a piece of paper.
+
+I stopped to listen and saw that Frank had heard it too. It was a scratchy
+sound as if some one were trying to unship the glass.
+
+"Massy sake!" my host gasped, taking his vile pipe out of his mouth.
+
+Although it was quite impossible for pallor to make any visible impression
+on his surpassing blackness, he obviously was much disturbed.
+
+"Gobble dat pie, boy," he gasped, "gobble up ev'y crumb an' splinter."
+
+Now, as the scratchy noise sounded at the door, the cook laid his pipe on a
+shelf and glanced up at a big carving-knife that hung from a rack above his
+head.
+
+"Who's dah?" he demanded cautiously.
+
+"Lemme in," said a mild, low voice, "I want some o' that pie."
+
+"Massy sake!" the cook gasped in disgust, "ef it ain't dat no 'count
+Kipping."
+
+"Lemme in," persisted the mild, plaintive voice. "Lemme in."
+
+"Aw, go 'long! Dah ain't no pie in heah," the cook retorted. "You's
+dreamin', dat's what you is. You needs a good dose of medicine, dat's what
+you needs."
+
+"I'm dreaming, am I?" the mild voice repeated. "Oh, yes, I'm dreaming I am,
+ain't I? I didn't sneak around the galley yesterday morning and hear you
+tell that cocky little fool to come and get a piece of pie tonight. Oh, no!
+I didn't see him come prowling around when he thought no one was looking.
+Oh, no! I didn't see you come out of the galley like you didn't know there
+was anybody on deck, and walk right under the rigging where I was waiting
+for just such tricks. Oh, no! I was dreaming, I was. Oh, yes."
+
+
+"Dat Kipping," the cook whispered, "he's hand and foot with Mistah Falk."
+
+"Lemme in, you woolly-headed son of perdition, or I swear I'll take the
+kinky scalp right off your round old head."
+
+"He's gettin' violenter," the cook whispered, eyeing me questioningly.
+
+Saying nothing, I swallowed the last bit of pie. I had made the most of my
+opportunity.
+
+Kipping now shook the door and swore angrily. Finally he kicked it with the
+full weight of his heel.
+
+It rattled on its hinges and a long crack appeared in the lower panel.
+
+"He's sho' coming in," the African said slowly and reflectively. "He's sho'
+coming in and when he don't get no pie, he's gwine tell Mistah Falk, and
+you and me's gwine have trouble." Putting his scowling face close to my
+ear, the cook whispered, "Ah's gwine scare him good."
+
+Amazed by the dramatic turn that events were taking, I drew back into a
+corner.
+
+From the rack above his head the cook took down the carving-knife. Dropping
+on hands and knees and creeping across the floor, he held the weapon
+between his even white teeth, sat up on his haunches, and noiselessly
+drew the bolt that locked the door. Then with a deft motion of an
+extraordinarily long arm he put out the lantern behind him and threw the
+galley into darkness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+KIPPING
+
+
+I thought that Kipping must have abandoned his quest. In the darkness of
+the galley the silence seemed hours long. The coals in the stove glowed
+redly, and the almost imperceptible light of the starry sky came in here
+and there around the door. Otherwise not a thing was visible in the
+absolute blackness that shrouded my strange host, who seemed for the moment
+to have reverted to the savage craft of his Slave Coast ancestors. Surely
+Kipping must have gone away, I thought. He was so mild a man, one could
+expect nothing else. Then somewhere I heard the faint sigh of indrawn
+breath.
+
+"You blasted nigger, open that door," said the mild, sad voice. "If you
+don't, I'm going to kick it in on top of you and cut your heart out right
+where you stand."
+
+The silence, heavy and pregnant, was broken by the shuffling of feet.
+Evidently Kipping drew off to kick the door a second time. His boot struck
+it a terrific blow, but the door, instead of breaking, flew open and
+crashed against the pans behind it.
+
+Then the cook, who so carefully had prepared the simple trap, swinging the
+carving-knife like a cutlass, sprang with a fierce, guttural grunt full in
+Kipping's face. Concealed in the dark galley, I saw it all silhouetted
+against the starlit deck. With the quickness of a weasel, Kipping evaded
+the black's clutching left hand and threw himself down and forward. Had the
+cook really intended to kill Kipping, the weapon scarcely could have failed
+to cut flesh in its terrific swing, but he gave it an upward turn that
+carried it safely above Kipping's head. When Kipping, however, dived under
+Frank's feet, Frank, who had expected him to turn and run, tripped and
+fell, dropping the carving-knife, and instantly black man and white
+wriggled toward the weapon.
+
+It would have been funny if it hadn't been so dramatic. The two men
+sprawled on their bellies like snakes, neither of them daring to take time
+to stand, each, in the snap of a finger, striving with every tendon and
+muscle to reach something that lay just beyond his finger-tips. I found
+myself actually laughing--they looked so like two fish just out of water.
+
+But the fight suddenly had become bitter earnest, Kipping unquestionably
+feared for his life, and the cook knew well that the weapon for which they
+fought would be turned against him if his antagonist once got possession of
+it.
+
+As Kipping closed his fingers on the handle, the cook grabbed the blade.
+Then the mate appeared out of the dark.
+
+
+"Here, what's this?" he demanded, looming on the scene of the struggle.
+
+I saw starlight flash on the knife as it flew over the bulwark, then I
+heard it splash. Kipping got away by a quick twist and vanished. The cook
+remained alone to face the mate, for you can be very sure that I had every
+discreet intention not to reveal my presence in the dark galley.
+
+"Yass, sah," said the cook, "yass, sah. Please to 'scuse me, sah, but Ah
+didn't go foh no premeditation of disturbance. It is quite unintelligible,
+sah, but one of de men, sah, he come round, sah, and says Ah gotta give him
+a pie, sah, and of co'se Ah can't do nothin' like dat, sah. Pies is foh de
+officers and gen'lems, sah, and of co'se Ah don't give pie to de men, sah,
+not even in dey vittles, sah, even if dey was pie, which dey wa'n't, sah,
+fob dis we'y day Mistah Falk he wants pie and stew'd he come, and me and
+he, sah, we sho' ransack dis galley, sah, and try like we can, not even two
+of us togetheh, sah, can sca' up a piece of pie foh Mistah Falk, sah, and
+he--"
+
+Unwilling to listen longer, the mate turned with a grunt of disgust and
+walked away.
+
+After he had gone, the cook stood for a time by the galley, looking
+pensively at the stars. Long-armed, broad-shouldered, bullet-headed, he
+seemed a typical savage. Yet in spite of his thick lips and protruding
+chin, his face had a certain thoughtful quality, and not even that deeply
+graven scowl could hide the dog-like faithfulness of his dark eyes.
+
+After all, I wondered, was he not like a faithful dog: loyal to the last
+breath, equally ready to succor his friend or to fight for him?
+
+"Boy," he said, when he came in, "Ah done fool 'em. Dey ain' gwine believe
+no gammon dat yeh Kipping tells 'em--leastwise, no one ain't onless it's
+Mistah Falk. Now you go 'long with you and don't you come neah me foh a
+week without you act like Ah ain't got no use foh you. And boy," he
+whispered, "you jest look out and keep clear of dat Kipping. Foh all he
+talk' like he got a mouth full of butter, he's an uncommon fighter, he is,
+yass sah, an uncommon fighter."
+
+He paused for a moment, then added in such a way that I remembered it long
+afterward, "Ah sho' would like to know whar Ah done see dat Kipping befo'."
+
+I reached the forecastle unobserved, and as I started to climb into my
+bunk, I felt very well satisfied with myself indeed. Not even Kipping had
+seen me come. But a disagreeable surprise awaited me; my hand encountered a
+man lying wrapped in my blankets.
+
+It was Kipping!
+
+He rolled out with a sly smile, looked at me in silence a long time, and
+then pretended to shake with silent laughter.
+
+"Well," I whispered, "what's the matter with you?"
+
+"There wasn't any pie," he sighed--so mildly. "How sad that there wasn't
+any pie."
+
+He then climbed into his own bunk and almost immediately, I judged, went to
+sleep.
+
+If he desired to make me exceedingly uncomfortable, he had accomplished his
+purpose. For days I puzzled over his queer behavior. I wondered how much he
+knew, how much he had told Mr. Falk; and I recalled, sometimes, the cook's
+remark, "Ah sho' would like to know whar Ah done see dat Kipping befo'."
+
+Of one thing I was sure: both Kipping and Mr. Falk heartily disliked me.
+Kipping took every occasion to annoy me in petty ways, and sometimes I
+discovered Mr. Falk watching me sharply and ill-naturedly. But he always
+looked away quickly when he knew that I saw him.
+
+We still lacked several days of having been at sea a month when we sighted
+Madeira, bearing west southwest about ten leagues distant. Taking a fresh
+departure the next day from latitude 32 deg. 22' North, and longitude 16 deg. 36'
+West of London, we laid our course south southwest, and swung far enough
+away from the outshouldering curve of the Rio de Oro coast to pass clear of
+the Canary Islands.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+"Do you know," said Bill Hayden one day, some five weeks later, when we
+were aloft side by side, "they don't like you any better than they do me."
+
+It was true; both Kipping and Mr. Falk showed it constantly.
+
+"And there's others that don't like us, too," Bill added. "I told 'em,
+though, that if they got funny with me or you, I'd show 'em what was what."
+
+"Who are they?" I asked, suddenly remembering Roger Hamlin's warning.
+
+"Davie Paine is one."
+
+"But I thought he didn't like Kipping or Mr. Falk!"
+
+"He didn't for a while; but there was something happened that turned his
+mind about them."
+
+I worked away with the tar-bucket and reflected on this unexpected change
+in the attitude of the deep-voiced seaman who, on our first day aboard
+ship, had seen Kipping wink at the second mate. It was all so trivial that
+I was ready to laugh at myself for thinking of it twice, and yet stupid
+old Bill Hayden had noticed it. A new suspicion startled me. "Bill, did
+any one say anything to you about any plan or scheme that Kipping is
+concerned in?" I asked.
+
+"Why, yes. Didn't they speak to you about it?"
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Why, about a voyage that all the men was to have a venture in. I thought
+they talked to every one. I didn't want anything to do with it if Kipping
+was to have a finger in the pie. I told 'em 'No!' and they swore at me
+something awful, and said that if ever I blabbed I'd never see my little
+wee girl at Newburyport again. So I never said nothing." He looked at me
+with a frightened expression. "It's funny they never said nothing to you.
+Don't you tell 'em I talked. If they thought I'd split, they'd knock me in
+the head, that's what they' d do."
+
+"Who's in it besides Kipping and Davie Paine?"
+
+"The two men from Boston and Chips and the steward. Them's all I know, but
+there may be others. The men have been talking about it quiet like for a
+good while now."
+
+As Mr. Falk came forward on some errand or other, we stopped talking and
+worked harder than ever at tarring down the rigging.
+
+Presently Bill repeated without turning his head, "Don't you tell 'em I
+said anything, will you, Bennie? Don't you tell 'em."
+
+And I replied, "No."
+
+We then had passed the Canaries and the Cape Verdes, and had crossed the
+Line; from the most western curve of Africa we had weathered the narrows of
+the Atlantic almost to Pernambuco, and thence, driven by fair winds, we had
+swept east again in a long arc, past Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha,
+and on south of the Cape of Good Hope.
+
+The routine of a sailor's life is full of hard work and petty detail. Week
+follows week, each like every other. The men complain about their duties
+and their food and the officers grow irritable. There are few stories worth
+telling in the drudgery of life at sea, but now and then in a long, long
+time fate and coincidence conspire to unite in a single voyage, such as
+that which I am chronicling, enough plots and crimes and untoward incidents
+to season a dozen ordinary lifetimes spent before the mast.
+
+I could not, of course, even begin as yet to comprehend the magnitude that
+the tiny whirlpool of discontented and lawless schemers would attain. But
+boy though I was, in those first months of the voyage I had learned
+enough about the different members of the crew to realize that serious
+consequences might grow from such a clique.
+
+Kipping, whom I had thought at first a mild, harmless man, had proved
+himself a vengeful bully, cowardly in a sense, yet apparently courageous
+enough so far as physical combat was concerned. Also, he had disclosed an
+unexpected subtlety, a cat-like craft in eavesdropping and underhanded
+contrivances. The steward I believed a mercenary soul, tricky so far as his
+own comfort and gain were concerned, who, according to common report, had
+ingratiated himself with the second mate by sympathizing with him on every
+occasion because he had not been given the chief mate's berth. The two men
+from Boston I cared even less for; they were slipshod workmen and
+ill-tempered, and their bearing convinced me that, from the point of view
+of our officers and of the owners of the ship, they were a most undesirable
+addition to such a coterie as Kipping seemed to be forming. Davie Paine and
+the carpenter prided themselves on being always affable, and each, although
+slow to make up his mind, would throw himself heart and body into whatever
+course of action he finally decided on. But significant above all else was
+Kipping's familiarity with Mr. Falk.
+
+The question now was, how to communicate my suspicions secretly to Roger
+Hamlin. After thinking the matter over in all its details, I wrote a few
+letters on a piece of white paper, and found opportunity to take counsel
+with my friend the cook, when I, as the youngest in the crew, was left in
+the galley to bring the kids forward to the men in the forecastle.
+
+"Doctor," I said, "if I wanted to get a note to Mr. Hamlin without
+anybody's knowing,--particularly the steward or Mr. Falk,--how should I go
+about it?"
+
+The perpetually frowning black heaped salt beef on the kids. "Dah's enough
+grub foh a hun'erd o'nary men. Dey's enough meat dah to feed a whole
+regiment of Sigambeezel cavalry--yass, sah, ho'ses and all. And yet Ah'll
+bet you foh dollahs right out of mah pay, doze pesky cable-scrapers fo'ward
+'ll eat all dat meat and cuss me in good shape 'cause it ain't mo', and
+den, mah golly, dey'll sot up all night, Ah'll bet you, yass, sah,
+a-kicking dey heads off 'cause dey ain't fed f'om de cabin table. Boy, if
+you was to set beefsteak and bake' 'taters and ham and eggs down befo' dem
+fool men ev'y mo'ning foh breakfas', dey'd come heah hollerin' and cussin'
+and tellin' me dey wah n't gwine have dey innards spiled on all dat yeh
+truck jest 'cause dem aft can't eat it."
+
+Turning his ferocious scowl full upon me, the savage-looking darky handed
+me the kids. "Dah! you take doze straight along fo'ward." Then, dropping
+his voice to a whisper, he said, "Gimme yo' note."
+
+Knowing now that the cook approached every important matter by an
+extraordinarily indirect route, I had expected some such conclusion, and I
+held the note ready.
+
+"Go long," he said, when I had slipped it into his huge black hand. "Ah'll
+do it right."
+
+So I departed with all confidence that my message would go secretly and
+safely to its destination. Even if it should fall into other hands than
+those for which it was intended, I felt that I had not committed myself
+dangerously. I had written only one word: "News."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+IN WHICH WE ENCOUNTER AN ARAB SHIP
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE COUNCIL IN THE CABIN
+
+
+Sometimes in the night I dream of the forecastle of the Island Princess,
+and see the crew sitting on chests and bunks, as vividly as if only
+yesterday I had come through the hatchway and down the steps with a kid of
+"salt horse" for the mess, and had found them waiting, each with his pan
+and spoon and the great tin dipper of tea that he himself had brought from
+the galley. There was Chips, the carpenter, who had descended for the
+moment from the dignity of the steerage; calmly he helped himself to twice
+his share, ignoring the oaths of the others, and washed down his first
+mouthful with a great gulp of tea. Once upon a time Chips came down just
+too late to get any meat, and tried to kill the cook; but as the cook
+remarked to me afterwards, "Foh a drea'ful impulsive pusson, he wah n't
+ve'y handy with his fists." There was Bill Hayden, who always got last
+chance at the meat, and took whatever the doubtful generosity of his
+shipmates had left him--poor Bill, as happy in the thought of his little
+wee girl at Newburyport as if all the wealth of the khans of Tartary were
+waiting for him at the end of the voyage. There was the deep-voiced Davie,
+almost out of sight in the darkest corner, who chose his food carefully,
+pretending the while to be considerate of the others, and growled amiably
+about his hard lot. Also there was Kipping, mild and evasive, yet amply
+able to look out for his own interests, as I, who so often brought down the
+kids, well knew.
+
+When, that evening, Bill Hayden had scraped up the last poor slivers of
+meat, he sat down beside me on my chest.
+
+"If I didn't have my little wee girl at Newburyport," he said, "I might
+be as gloomy as Neddie Benson. Do you suppose if I went to see a
+fortune-teller I'd be as gloomy as Neddie is? I never used to be gloomy,
+even before I married, and I married late. I was older than Neddie is
+now when I married. Neddie ought to get a wife and stop going to see
+fortune-tellers, and then he wouldn't be so gloomy."
+
+Bill would run on indefinitely in his stupid, kindly way, for I was almost
+the only person aboard ship who listened to him at all, and, to tell the
+truth, even I seldom more than half listened. But already he had given me
+valuable information that day, and now something in the tone of his
+rambling words caught my attention.
+
+"Has Neddie Benson been talking about the fortuneteller again?" I asked.
+
+"He's had a lot to say about her. He says the lady said to him--"
+
+"But what started him off?"
+
+"He says things is bound to come to a bad end."
+
+"What things?"
+
+As I have said before, I had a normal boy's curiosity about all that was
+going on around us. Perhaps, I have come to think, I had more than the
+ordinary boy's sense for important information. Roger Hamlin's warning had
+put me on my guard, and I intended to learn all I could and to keep my
+mouth shut where certain people were concerned.
+
+"It's queer they don't say nothing to you about what's going on," Bill
+remarked.
+
+For my own part I understood very well why they should say nothing of any
+underhanded trickery to one who ashore was so intimately acquainted with
+Captain Whidden and Roger Hamlin. But I kept my thoughts to myself and
+persisted in my questions.
+
+"What is going on?"
+
+"Oh, I don't just make out what." Bill's stupidity was exasperating at
+times. "It's something about Mr. Falk. Kipping, he--"
+
+"Yes?" said that eternally mild voice. "Mr. Falk? And Kipping? What else
+please?"
+
+Both Bill and I were startled to find Kipping at our elbows. But before
+either of us could answer, some one called down the hatch:--
+
+"Lathrop is wanted aft."
+
+Relieved at escaping from an embarrassing situation, I jumped up so
+promptly that my knife fell with a clatter, and hastened on deck, calling
+"Ay, ay," to the man who had summoned me. I knew very well why I was wanted
+aft.
+
+Mr. Falk, who was on duty on the quarter-deck, completely ignored me as I
+passed him and went down the companionway.
+
+"At least," I thought, "he can't come below now."
+
+The steward, when I appeared, raised his eyebrows and almost dropped his
+tray; then he paused in the door, inconspicuously, as if to linger. But
+Captain Whidden glanced round and dismissed him by a sharp nod, and I found
+myself alone in the cabin with the captain, Mr. Thomas, and Roger Hamlin.
+
+"I understand there's news forward, Lathrop," said Captain Whidden.
+
+Roger looked at me with that humorous, exasperating twinkle of his eyes,--I
+thought of my sister and of how she had looked when she learned that he was
+to sail for Canton,--and Mr. Thomas folded his arms and leaned back in his
+chair.
+
+"Yes, sir," I replied, "although it seems pretty unimportant to be worth
+much as news."
+
+"Tell us about it."
+
+To all that I had gathered from Bill Hayden I added what I had learned by
+my own observations, and it seemed to interest them, although for my own
+part I doubted whether it was of much account.
+
+"Has any one approached you directly about these things?" Captain Whidden
+asked when I was through.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Have you heard any one say just what this little group is trying to
+accomplish, or just when it is going to act?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you, Lathrop, know anything about the cargo of the Island Princess? Or
+anything about the terms under which it is carried?"
+
+"Only in a general way, sir, that it is made up of ginseng and woolen goods
+shipped to Canton."
+
+Captain Whidden looked at me very sharply indeed. "You are positive that
+that is all you know?"
+
+"Yes, sir--except, in a general way, that the cargo is uncommonly
+important."
+
+The three men exchanged glances, and Roger Hamlin nodded as if to
+corroborate my reply.
+
+"Lathrop," Captain Whidden began again, "I want you to say nothing about
+this interview after you leave the cabin. It is more important that you
+hold your peace than you may ever realize--than, I trust, you ever _will_
+realize. I am going to ask you to give me your word of honor to that
+effect."
+
+It seemed to me then that I saw Captain Whidden in a new light. We of the
+younger generation had inclined to belittle him because he continued to
+follow the sea at an age when more successful men had established their
+counting-houses or had retired from active business altogether. But twice
+his mercantile adventures had proved unfortunate, and now, though nearly
+sixty years old and worth a very comfortable fortune, he refused to leave
+again for a less familiar occupation the profession by which he had amassed
+his competence. I noticed that his hair was gray on his temples, and that
+his weathered face revealed a certain stern sadness. I felt as if suddenly,
+in spite of my minor importance on board his ship, I had come closer to the
+straightforward gentleman, the true Joseph Whidden, than in all the years
+that I had known him, almost intimately, it had seemed at the time, in my
+father's house.
+
+"I promise, sir," I said.
+
+He took up a pencil and with the point tapped a piece of paper.
+
+"Tell me who of all the men forward absolutely are not influenced by this
+man Kipping."
+
+"The cook," I returned, "and Bill Hayden, and, I think, Neddie Benson.
+Probably there are a number of others, but only of those three am I
+absolutely sure."
+
+"That's what I want--the men you are absolutely sure of. Hm! The cook,
+useful but not particularly quick-witted. Hayden, a harmless, negative
+body. Benson, a gloomy soul if ever there was one. It might be better
+but--" He looked at Mr. Thomas and smiled. "That is all, Lathrop; you may
+go now. Just one moment more, though: be cautious, keep your eyes and ears
+open, and if anything else comes up, communicate with Mr. Hamlin or,--" he
+hesitated, but finally said it,--"or directly with me."
+
+As I went up on deck, I again passed Mr. Falk and again he pretended not to
+see me. But although he seemed to be intent on the rolling seas to
+windward, I was very confident that, when I had left the quarter-deck, he
+turned and looked after me as earnestly as if he hoped to read in my step
+and carriage everything that had occurred in the cabin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SAIL WITH A LOZENGE-SHAPED PATCH
+
+
+It was not long before we got another warning even more ominous than the
+one from the captain of the Adventure. On Friday, July 28, in latitude
+19 deg. 50' South, longitude 101 deg. 53' East,--the log of the voyage, kept beyond
+this point in Mr. Thomas's own hand, gives me the dates and figures to the
+very day for it still is preserved in the vaults of Hamlin, Lathrop &
+Company,--we sighted a bark to the south, and at the captain's orders wore
+ship to speak her. When she also came about, we served out pikes and
+muskets as a precaution against treachery, and Mr. Falk saw that our guns
+were shotted. But she proved to be in good faith, and in answer to our hail
+she declared herself the Adrienne of Liverpool, eight days from the
+Straits, homeward bound. Her master, it appeared, wished to compare notes
+on longitude, and a long, dull discussion followed; but in parting Captain
+Whidden asked if there was news of pirates or marauders.
+
+"Yes," was the reply. "Much news and bad news." And the master of the
+Adrienne thereupon launched into a tale of piracy and treachery such, as I
+never had heard before. Leaning over the taffrail, his elbows out-thrust
+and his big hands folded, he roared the story at us in a great booming
+voice that at times seemed to drown the words in its own volume. Now, as
+the waves and the wind snatched it away, it grew momentarily fainter and
+clearer; now it came bellowing back again, loud, hoarse, and indistinct.
+
+It was all about an Arab ship off Benkulen; Ladronesers and the havoc they
+had wrought among the American ships in the China Sea; a warning not to
+sail from Macao for Whampoa without a fleet of four or five sail; and
+again, about the depredations of the Malays. The grizzled old captain
+seemed to delight in repeating horrible yarns of the seas whence he came,
+whither we were going. He roared them after us until we had left him far
+astern; and at the last we heard him laughing long and hoarsely.
+
+"What dat yeh man think we all am? He think we all gwine believe dat yeh?
+Hgh!" the cook growled.
+
+But Neddie Benson dolefully shook his head.
+
+Parting, the Adrienne and the Island Princess continued, each on her
+course, the one back round the Cape of Good Hope and north again to
+Liverpool, the other on into strange oceans beset with a thousand dangers.
+
+We sailed now a sea of opalescent greens and purples that shimmered and
+changed with the changing lights. Strange shadows played across it, even
+when the sky was cloudless, and it rolled past the ship in great, regular
+swells, ruffled by favoring breezes and bright beneath the clear sun.
+
+At daylight on August 3 we saw land about nine miles away, bearing from
+east by south to north, a long line of rugged hills, which appeared to be
+piled one above another, and which our last lunar observations indicated
+were in longitude 107 deg. 15' East; and we made out a single sail lying off
+the coast to the north.
+
+The sail caught and held our attention--not that, so far as we then could
+see, that particular sail was at all remarkable: any sail, at that time and
+in that place, would have interested us unusually. Mindful of the warnings
+we had received, we paused in our work to watch it. Kipping, with a sly
+glance aft, left the winch with which he was occupied and leaned on the
+rail. Here and there the crew conversed cautiously, and on the quarter-deck
+a lively discussion, I could see, was in progress.
+
+We were so intent on that distant spot of canvas which pricked the horizon,
+that a fierce squall, sweeping down upon us, almost took us aback.
+
+The cry, "All hands on deck!" brought the sleeping watch from the bunks
+below, and the carpenter, steward, and sailmaker from the steerage. The
+foresail ripped from its bolt ropes with a deafening crack, and tore to
+ribbons in the gale. As the ship lay into the wind, I could hear the
+captain's voice louder than the very storm, "Meet her!--Meet her!--Ease her
+off!" But the reply of the man at the wheel was lost in the rush of wind
+and rain.
+
+I had been well drilled long since in furling the royals, for on them the
+green hands were oftenest practised; and now, from his post on the
+forecastle, Mr. Thomas spied me as I slipped and fell half across the deck.
+I alone at that moment was not hard at work, and, in obedience to the
+captain's orders, during a lull that gave us a momentary respite, he sent
+me aloft.
+
+It was quite a different thing from furling a royal in a light breeze. When
+I had got to the topgallant masthead, the yard was well down by the lifts
+and steadied by the braces, but the clews were not hauled chock up to the
+blocks. Leaning out precariously, I won Mr. Thomas's attention with
+greatest difficulty, and shrieked to have it done. This he did. Then,
+casting the yard-arm gaskets off from the tye and laying them across
+between the tye and the mast, I stretched out on the weather yard-arm and,
+getting hold of the weather leech, brought it in to the slings taut along
+the yard. Mind you, all this time I, only a boy, was working in a gale of
+wind and driven rain, and was clinging to a yard that was sweeping from
+side to side in lurching, unsteady flight far above the deck and the angry
+sea. Hauling the sail through the clew, and letting it fall in the bunt, I
+drew the weather clew a little abaft the yard, and held it with my knee
+while I brought in the lee leech in, the same manner. Then, making up my
+bunt and putting into it the slack of the clews, the leech and footrope and
+the body of the sail, I hauled it well up on the yard, smoothed the skin,
+brought it down abaft, and made fast the bunt-gasket round the mast.
+Passing the weather and lee yard-arm gaskets round the yard in turn, and
+hauling them taut and making them fast, I left all snug and trim.
+
+From aft came faintly the clear command, "Full and by!" And promptly, for
+by this time the force of the squall was already spent, the answer of the
+man at the wheel, "Full and by, sir."
+
+In this first moment of leisure I instinctively turned, as did virtually
+every man aboard ship, to look for the sail that had been reported to the
+north of us. But although we looked long and anxiously, we saw no sail, no
+trace of any floating craft. It had disappeared during the squall, utterly
+and completely. Only the wild dark sea and the wild succession of mountain
+piled on mountain met our searching eyes.
+
+A sail there had been, beyond all question, where now there was none.
+Driven by the storm, it had vanished completely from our sight.
+
+As well as we could judge by our lunar observations, the land was between
+Paga River and Stony Point, and when we had sailed along some forty miles,
+the shore, as it should be according to our reckoning, was less
+mountainous.
+
+It was my first glimpse of the Sunda Islands, of which I had heard so much,
+and I well remember that I stood by the forward rigging watching the
+distant land from where it seemed on my right to rise from the sea, to
+where it seemed on my left to go down beyond the horizon into the sea
+again, and that I murmured to myself in a small, awed voice:--
+
+"This is Java!"
+
+The very name had magic in it. Already from those islands our Salem
+mariners had accumulated great wealth. Not yet are the old days forgotten,
+when Elias Hasket Derby's ships brought back fortunes from Batavia, and
+when Captain Carnes, by one voyage in Jonathan Peele's schooner Rajah to
+the northern coast of Sumatra for wild pepper, made a profit of seven
+hundred per cent of both the total cost of the schooner itself and the
+whole expense of the entire expedition. I who lived in the exhilarating
+atmosphere of those adventurous times was thrilled to the heart by my first
+sight of lands to which hundreds of Salem ships had sailed.
+
+It really was Java, and night was falling on its shores. Far to the
+northeast some tiny object pricked above the skyline, and a point of light
+gleamed clearly, low against the blue heavens in which the stars had just
+begun to shine.
+
+"A sail!" I cried.
+
+Before the words had left my lips a deep voice aloft sonorously
+proclaimed:--
+
+"Sa-a-ail ho!"
+
+"Where away?" Mr. Thomas cried.
+
+"Two points off the larboard bow, sir."
+
+The little knot of officers on the quarter-deck already were intent on the
+tiny spot of almost invisible canvas, and we forward were crowding one
+another for a better sight of it. Then in the gathering darkness it faded
+and was gone. Could it have been the same that we had seen before?
+
+There was much talk of the mysterious ship that night, and many strange
+theories were offered to account for it. Davie Paine, in his deep, rolling
+voice, sent shivers down our backs by his story of a ghost-ship manned by
+dead men with bony fingers and hollow eyes, which had sailed the seas in
+the days of his great-uncle, a stout old mariner who seemed from Davie's
+account to have been a hard drinker. Kipping was reminded of yarns about
+Malay pirates, which he told so quietly, so mildly, that they seemed by
+contrast thrice as terrible. Neddie Benson lugubriously recalled the
+prophecy of the charming fortune-teller and argued the worst of our
+mysterious stranger. "The lady said," he repeated, "that there'd be a dark
+man and a light man and no end o' trouble. She was a nice lady, too." But
+Neddie and his doleful fortune-teller as usual banished our gloom, and the
+forecastle reechoed with hoarse laughter, which grew louder and louder when
+Neddie once again narrated the lady's charms, and at last cried angrily
+that she was as plump as a nice young chicken.
+
+"If you was to ask me," Bill Hayden murmured, "I'd say it was just a sail."
+But no one asked Bill Hayden, and with a few words about his "little wee
+girl at Newburyport," he buried himself in his old blankets and was soon
+asleep.
+
+During the mid-watch that same night, the cook prowled the deck forward
+like a dog sneaking along the wharves. Silently, the whites of his eyes
+gleaming out of the darkness, he moved hither and thither, careful always
+to avoid the second mate's observation. As I watched him, I became more and
+more curious, for I could make nothing of his veering course. He went now
+to starboard, now to larboard, now to the forecastle, now to the steerage,
+always silently, always deliberately. After a while he came over and stood
+beside me.
+
+"It ain't right," he whispered. "Ah tell you, boy, it ain't right."
+
+"What's not right?" I asked.
+
+"De goin's on aboa'd dis ship."
+
+"What goings on?"
+
+"Boy, Ah's been a long time to sea and Ah's cooked foh some bad crews in my
+time, yass, sah, but Ah's gwine tell you, boy, 'cause Ah done took a fancy
+to you, dis am de most iniquitous crew Ah eveh done cook salt hoss foh.
+Yass, sah."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+The negro ignored my question.
+
+"Ah's gwine tell you, boy, dis yeh crew am bad 'nough, but when dah come a
+ha'nt boat a-sailin' oveh yondeh jest at dahk, boy, Ah wish Ah was back
+home whar Ah could somehow come to shoot a rabbit what got a lef'
+hind-foot. Yass, sah."
+
+For a long time he silently paced up and down by the bulwark; but finally I
+saw him momentarily against the light of his dim lantern as he entered his
+own quarters.
+
+Morning came with fine breezes and pleasant weather. At half-past four we
+saw Winerow Point bearing northwest by west. At seven o'clock we took in
+all studding-sails and staysails, and the fore and mizzen topgallant-sails.
+So another day passed and another night. An hour after midnight we took in
+the main topgallantsail, and lay by with our head to the south until six
+bells, when we wore ship, proceeding north again, and saw Java Head at nine
+o'clock to the minute.
+
+We now faced Sunda Strait, the channel that separates Java from Sumatra and
+unites the Indian Ocean with the Java Sea. From the bow of our ship there
+stretched out on one hand and on the other, far beyond the horizon, Borneo,
+Celebes, Banka and Billiton; the Little Sunda Islands--Bali and Lombok,
+Simbawa, Flores and Timor; the China Sea, the Philippines, and farther and
+greater than them all, the mainland of Asia.
+
+While we were still intent on Java Head there came once more the cry, "Sail
+ho!"
+
+This time the sail was not to be mistaken. Captain Whidden trained on it
+the glass, which he shortly handed to Mr. Thomas. "See her go!" the men
+cried. It was true. She was running away from us easily. Now she was hull
+down. Now we could see only her topgallant-sails. Now she again had
+disappeared. But this time we had found, besides her general appearance and
+the cut of her sails, which no seaman could mistake, a mark by which any
+landsman must recognize her: on her fore-topsail there was a white
+lozenge-shaped patch.
+
+At eleven o'clock in the morning, with Prince's Island bearing from north
+to west by south, we entered the Straits of Sunda. At noon we were due east
+of Prince's Island beach and had sighted the third Point of Java and the
+Isle of Cracato.
+
+Fine breezes and a clear sky favored us, and the islands, green and blue
+according to their distance, were beautiful to see. Occasionally we had
+glimpses of little native craft, or descried villages sleeping amid the
+drowsy green of the cocoanut trees. It was a peaceful, beautiful world
+that met our eyes as the Island Princess stood through the Straits and up
+the east coast of Sumatra; the air was warm and pleasant, and the leaves of
+the tufted palms, lacily interwoven, were small in the distance like the
+fronds of ferns in our own land. But Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas
+remained on deck and constantly searched the horizon with the glass; and
+the men worked uneasily, glancing up apprehensively every minute or two,
+and starting at slight sounds. There was reason to be apprehensive, we
+all knew.
+
+On the evening of Friday, August 11, beyond possibility of doubt we sighted
+a ship; and that it was the same which we already had seen at least once,
+the lozenge-shaped patch on the foresail proved to the satisfaction
+of officers and men.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ATTACKED
+
+
+In the morning we were mystified to see that the sail once again had
+disappeared. But to distract us from idle speculations, need of fresh water
+now added to our uneasiness, and we anchored on a mud bottom while the
+captain and Mr. Thomas went ashore and searched in vain for a
+watering-place.
+
+During the day we saw a number of natives fishing in their boats a short
+distance away; but when our own boat approached them, they pulled for the
+shore with all speed and fled into the woods like wild men. Thus the day
+passed,--so quietly and uneventfully that it lulled us into confidence that
+we were safe from harm,--and a new day dawned.
+
+That morning, as we lay at anchor, the strange ship, with the sun shining
+brightly on her sails, boldly reappeared from beyond a distant point, and
+hove to about three miles to the north-northeast. As she lay in plain sight
+and almost within earshot, she seemed no more out of the ordinary than any
+vessel that we might have passed off the coast of New England. But on her
+great foresail, which hung loose now with the wind shaken out of it, there
+was a lozenge-shaped patch of clean new canvas.
+
+Soon word passed from mouth to mouth that the captain and Mr. Falk would go
+in the gig to learn the stranger's name and port.
+
+To a certain extent we were relieved to find that our phantom ship was
+built of solid wood and iron; yet we were decidedly apprehensive as we
+watched the men pull away in the bright sun. The boat became smaller and
+smaller, and the dipping oars flashed like gold.
+
+With his head out-thrust and his chin sunk below the level of his
+shoulders, the cook stood by the galley, in doubt and foreboding, and
+watched the boat pull away.
+
+His voice, when he spoke, gave me a start.
+
+"Look dah, boy! Look dah! Dey's sumpin' funny, yass, sah. 'Tain't safe foh
+to truck with ha'nts, no sah! You can't make dis yeh nigger think a winkin'
+fire-bug of a fly-by-night ship ain't a ha'nt."
+
+"Ha'nts," said Kipping mildly, "ha'nts is bad things for niggers, but they
+don't hurt white men."
+
+"Lemme tell you, you Kipping, it ain't gwine pay you to be disrespectable
+to de cook." Frank stuck his angry face in front of the mild man's. "Ef you
+think--ha!"--He stopped suddenly, his eyes fixed on something far beyond
+Kipping, over whose shoulder he now was looking. "Look dah! Look dah! What
+Ah say? Hey? What Ah say? Look dah! Look dah!"
+
+Startled by the cook's fierce yell, we turned as if a gun had been fired;
+but we saw only that the boat was coming about.
+
+"Look dah! Look dah! See 'em row! Don' tell me dat ain't no ha'nt!" Jumping
+up and down, waving his arms wildly, contorting his irregular features till
+he resembled a gorilla, he continued to yell in frenzy.
+
+Although there seemed to be no cause for any such outburst, the rest of us
+now were alarmed by the behavior of the men in the boat. Having come about,
+they were racing back to the Island Princess as fast as ever they could,
+and the captain and Mr. Falk, if we could judge by their gestures, were
+urging them to even greater efforts.
+
+"Look dah! Look dah! Don't you tell me dey ain't seen a ha'nt, you
+Kipping!"
+
+As they approached, I heard Roger Hamlin say sharply to the mate, "Mr.
+Thomas, that ship yonder is drifting down on us rapidly. See! They're
+sheeting home the topsail."
+
+I could see that Mr. Thomas, who evidently thought Roger's fear groundless,
+was laughing, but I could not hear his reply. In any case he gave no order
+to prepare for action until the boat came within earshot and the captain
+abruptly hailed him and ordered him to trip anchor and prepare to make
+sail.
+
+As the boat came aboard, we heard news that thrilled us. "She's an Arab
+ship," spread the word. "They were waiting for our boat, with no sign of
+hostility until Mr. Falk saw the sunlight strike on a gun-barrel that was
+intended to be hidden behind the bulwark. As the boat veered away, the man
+with the gun started to fire, but another prevented him, probably because
+the distance was so great."
+
+Instantly there was wild activity on the Island Princess. While we loosed
+the sails and sheeted them home and, with anchor aweigh, braced the yards
+and began to move ahead, the idlers were tricing up the boarding nettings
+and double-charging our cannon, of which we carried three--a long gun
+amidships and a pair of stern chasers. Men to work the ship were ordered to
+the ropes. The rest were served pikes and loaded muskets.
+
+We accomplished the various preparations in an incredibly short time, and,
+gathering way, stood ready to receive the stranger should she force us to
+fight.
+
+For the time being we were doubtful of her intentions, and seeing us armed
+and ready, she stood off as if still unwilling to press us more closely.
+But some one aboard her, if I guess aright, resented so tame an end to a
+long pursuit and insisted on at least an exchange of volleys.
+
+[Illustration: Suddenly, in the brief silence that followed the two
+thunderous reports, a pistol shot rang out sharply and I saw Captain
+Whidden spin around and fall.]
+
+Now she came down on us, running easily with the wind on her quarter, and
+gave us a round from her muskets.
+
+"Hold your fire," Captain Whidden ordered. "They're feeling their way."
+
+Emboldened by our silence, she wore ship and came nearer. It seemed now
+that she would attempt to board us, for we spied men waiting with
+grapnels, and she came steadily on while our own men fretted at their
+guns, not daring to fire without the captain's orders, till we could see
+the triumphant sneer on the dark face of her commander.
+
+Now her muskets spoke again. I heard a bullet sing over my head and saw one
+of our own seamen in the waist fall and lie quite still. Should we never
+answer her in kind? In three minutes, it seemed, we should have to meet her
+men hand to hand.
+
+Now our helmsman luffed, and we came closer into the wind, which gave our
+guns a chance.
+
+"Now, then," Captain Whidden cried, "let them have the long gun and hold
+the rest."
+
+With a crash our cannon swept the deck of the Arab, splintering the cabin
+and accomplishing ten times as much damage as all her muskets had done to
+us. But she in turn, exasperated by the havoc we had wrought, fired
+simultaneously her two largest guns at point-blank range.
+
+I ducked behind the bulwark and looked back along the deck. One ball had
+hit the scuttle-butt and had splashed the water fifteen feet in every
+direction. Another had splintered the cross jack-yard. Suddenly, in the
+brief silence that followed the two thunderous reports, a single
+pistol-shot rang out sharply and I saw Captain Whidden spin round and fall.
+
+Our own guns, as we came about, sent an answer that cut the Arab's lower
+sail to ribbons, disabled many men and, I am confident, killed several. But
+there was no time to load again. Although by now we showed our stern to the
+enemy, and had a fair--chance to outstrip her in a long race, her greater
+momentum was bringing her down upon us rapidly. From aft came the order--it
+was Mr. Thomas who gave it,--"All hands to the pikes and repel boarders!"
+
+There was, however, no more fighting. Our assailants took measure of the
+stout nets and the strong battery of pikes, and, abandoning the whole
+unlucky adventure, bore away on a new course.
+
+One man forward was killed and four were badly hurt. Mr. Thomas sat with
+his back against the cabin, very white of face, with streams of red running
+from his nostrils and his mouth; and Captain Whidden lay dead on the deck.
+An hour later word passed through the ship that Mr. Thomas, too, had died.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+BAD SIGNS
+
+
+It was strange that, while some of us in the forecastle were much cast down
+by the tragic events of the day, others should seem to be put in really
+good humor by it all. Neddie Benson soberly shook his head from time to
+time; old Bill Hayden lay in his bunk without even a word about his "little
+wee girl in Newburyport," and occasionally complained of not feeling well;
+and various others of the crew faced the future with frank hopelessness.
+
+For my own part, it seemed to me as unreal as a nightmare that Captain
+Joseph Whidden actually had been shot dead by a band of Arab pirates. I was
+bewildered--indeed, stunned--by the incredible suddenness of the calamity.
+It was so complete, so appallingly final! To me, a boy still in his 'teens,
+that first intimate association with violent death would have been in
+itself terrible, and I keenly felt the loss of our chief mate. But Captain
+Whidden to me was far more than master of the ship. He had been my father's
+friend since long before I was born; and from the days when I first
+discriminated between the guests at my father's house, I had counted him as
+also a friend of mine. Never had I dreamed that so sad an hour would darken
+my first voyage.
+
+Kipping, on the other hand, and Davie Paine and the carpenter seemed
+actually well pleased with what had happened. They lolled around with an
+air of exasperating superiority when they saw any of the rest of us looking
+at them; and now and then they exchanged glances that I was at a loss to
+understand until all at once a new thought dawned on me: since the captain
+and the first mate were dead, the command of the ship devolved upon
+Mr. Falk, the second mate.
+
+No wonder that Kipping and Davie and the carpenter and all the rest of that
+lawless clique were well pleased. No wonder that old Bill Hayden and some
+of the others, for whom Kipping and his friends had not a particle of use
+were downcast by the prospect.
+
+I was amazed at my own stupidity in not realizing it before, and above all
+else I now longed to talk with someone whom I could trust--Roger Hamlin by
+preference; as second choice, my friend the cook. But for the time being I
+was disappointed in this. Almost immediately Mr. Falk summoned all hands
+aft.
+
+"Men," he said, putting on a grave face that seemed to me assumed for the
+occasion, "men, we've come through a dangerous time, and we are lucky to
+have come alive out of the bad scrape that we were in. Some of us haven't
+come through so well. It's a sad thing for a ship to lose an officer, and
+it is twice as sad to lose two fine officers like Captain Whidden and Mr.
+Thomas. I'll now read the service for the burial of the dead, and after
+that I'll have something more to say to you."
+
+One of the men spoke in an undertone, and Mr. Falk cried, "What's that?"
+
+"If you please, sir," the man said, fidgeting nervously, "couldn't we go
+ashore and bury them decently?"
+
+Others had thought of the same thing, and they showed it by their faces;
+but Mr. Falk scowled and replied, "Nonsense! We'd be murdered in cold
+blood."
+
+So we stood there, bareheaded, silent, sad at heart, and heard the droning
+voice of the second mate,--even then he could not hide his unrighteous
+satisfaction,--who read from a worn prayer-book, that had belonged to
+Captain Whidden himself, the words committing the bodies of three men to
+the deep, their souls to God.
+
+When the brief, perfunctory service was over, Mr. Falk put away the
+prayer-book,--I verily believe he put away with it all fear of the
+Lord,--folded his arms and faced us arrogantly.
+
+"By the death of Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas," he said, "I have become
+the rightful master of this ship. Now I've got a few things to say to you,
+and I'm going to have them understood. If you heed them and work smartly,
+you'll get along as well as you deserve. If you don't heed them, you'd
+better be dead and done with it. If you don't heed them--" he sneered
+disagreeably--"if you don't heed them I'll lash the skin off the back of
+every bloody mother's son of ye. This voyage from now on is to be carried
+out for the best interests of all concerned." He stopped and smiled and
+repeated significantly, "_Of_ ALL _concerned_." After another pause, in
+which some of the men exchanged knowing glances, he went on, "I have no
+doubt that the most of us will get along as well as need be. So far, well
+and good. But if there's those that try to cross my bows,"--he swore
+roundly,--"heaven help'em! They'll need it. That's all. Wait! One thing
+more: we've got to have officers, and as I know you'll not be bold to pick
+from among yourselves, I'll save you the trouble. Kipping from this time on
+will be chief mate. You'll take his things aft, and you'll obey him from
+now on and put the handle to his name. Paine will be second mate. That's
+all. Go forward."
+
+Kipping and Davie Paine! I was thunderstruck. But some of the men exchanged
+glances and smiles as before, and I saw by his expression that Roger,
+although ill pleased, was by no means so amazed as I should have expected
+him to be.
+
+For the last time as seaman, Kipping, mild and quiet, came to the
+forecastle. But as he packed his bag and prepared to leave us, he smiled
+constantly with a detestable quirk of his mouth, and before going he
+stopped beside downcast old Bill Hayden. "Straighten up, be a man," he said
+softly; "I'll see that you're treated right." He fairly drawled the words,
+so mildly did he speak; but when he had finished, his manner instantly
+changed. Thrusting out his chin and narrowing his eyes, he deliberately
+drew back his foot and gave old Bill one savage kick.
+
+I was right glad that chance had placed me in the second mate's watch.
+
+As for Davie Paine, he was so overcome by the stroke of fortune that had
+resulted in his promotion, that he could not even collect his belongings.
+We helped him pile them into his chest, which he fastened with trembling
+fingers, and gave him a hand on deck. But even his deep voice had failed
+him for the time being, and when he took leave of us, he whispered
+piteously, '"Fore the Lord, I dunno how it happened. I ain't never learned
+to figger and I can't no more than write my name."
+
+What was to become of us? Our captain was a weak officer. Our present chief
+mate no man of us trusted.
+
+Our second mate was inexperienced, incompetent, illiterate. More than ever
+I longed to talk with Roger Hamlin, but there was no opportunity that
+night.
+
+Our watch on deck was a farce, for old Davie was so unfamiliar with his new
+duties and so confused by his sudden eminence that, according to the men at
+the wheel, he didn't know north from south or aloft from alow. Evading his
+confused glances, I sought the galley, and without any of the usual
+complicated formalities was admitted to where the cook was smoking his rank
+pipe.
+
+Rolling his eyes until the whites gleamed, he told me the following
+astounding story.
+
+"Boy," he said, "dis am de most unmitigated day ol' Frank ever see. Cap'n,
+he am a good man and now he's a dead un. Mistah Thomas he am a good man and
+now _he's_ a dead un. What Ah tell you about dem ha'nts? Ef Ah could have
+kotched a rabbit with a lef' hind-leg, Ah guess we'd be better off. Hey?
+Mistah Falk, he am cap'n--Lo'd have mercy on us! Dat Kipping, he am chief
+mate--Lo'd have mercy on us mis'able sinners! Davie Paine, he am second
+mate--Lo'd perserve ou' souls! Ah guess you don't know what Ah heah Mistah
+Falk say to stew'd! He says, 'Stew'd, we got ev'ything--ev'ything. And we
+ain't broke a single law!' Now tell me what he mean by dat? What's stew'd
+got, Ah want to know? But dat ain't all--no, sah, dat ain't all."
+
+He leaned forward, the whites of his eyes rolling, his fixed frown more
+ominous than ever. "Boy, Ah see 'em when dey's dead, Ah did. Ah see 'em
+all. Mistah Thomas, he have a big hole in de middle of his front, and dat
+po' old sailo' man he have a big hole in de middle of his front. Yass, sah,
+Ah see 'em! But cap'n, he have a little roun' hole in the back of his
+head.--Yass, sah--_he was shot f'om behine_!"
+
+The sea that night was as calm and as untroubled as if the day had passed
+in Sabbath quiet. It seemed impossible that we had endured so much, that
+Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas were dead, that the space of only
+twenty-four hours had wrought such a change in the fortunes of all on
+board.
+
+[Illustration: We helped him pile his belongings into his chest
+and gave him a hand on deck.]
+
+I could not believe that one of our own men had shot our captain. Surely
+the bullet must have hit him when he was turning to give an order or to
+oversee some particular duty. And yet I could not forget the cook's words.
+They hummed in my ears. They sounded in the strumming of the rigging, in
+the "talking" of the ship:--
+
+"A little roun' hole in the back of his head--yass, sah--he was shot f'om
+behine."
+
+Without the captain and Mr. Thomas the Island Princess was like a strange
+vessel. Both Kipping and Davie Paine had been promoted from the starboard
+watch, leaving us shorthanded; so a queer, self-confident fellow named
+Blodgett was transferred from the chief mate's watch to ours. But even so
+there were fewer hands and more work, and the spirit of the crew seemed to
+have changed. Whereas earlier in the voyage most of the men had gone
+smartly about their duties, always glad to lend a hand or join in a
+chantey, and with an eye for the profit and welfare of the owners as well
+as of themselves, now there came over the ship, silently, imperceptibly,
+yet so swiftly and completely that, although no man saw it come, in
+twenty-four hours it was with us and upon us in all its deadening and
+discouraging weight, a spirit of lassitude and procrastination. You would
+have expected some of the men to find it hard to give old Davie Paine quite
+all the respect to which his new berth entitled him, and for my own part I
+liked Kipping less even than I had liked Mr. Falk. But although my own
+prejudice should have enabled me to understand any minor lapses from the
+strict discipline of life aboard ship, much occurred in the next
+twenty-four hours that puzzled me.
+
+For one thing, those men whom I had thought most likely to accord Kipping
+and Mr. Falk due respect were most careless in their work and in the small
+formalities observed between officers and crew. The carpenter and the
+steward, for example, spent a long time in the galley at an hour when they
+should have been busy with their own duties. I was near when they came out,
+and heard the cook's parting words: "Yass, sah, yass, sah, it ain't
+neveh no discombobilation to help out gen'lems, sah. Yass, sah, no, sah."
+
+And when, a little later, I myself knocked at the door, I got a reception
+that surprised me beyond measure.
+
+"Who dah," the cook cried in his usual brusque voice. "Who dah knockin' at
+mah door?"
+
+Coming out, he brushed past me, and stood staring fiercely from side to
+side. I knew, of course, his curiously indirect methods, and I expected him
+by some quick motion or muttered command to summon me, as always before,
+into his hot little cubby-hole. Never was boy more taken aback! "Who dah
+knockin' at mah door?" he said again, standing within two feet of my elbow,
+looking past me not two inches from my nose. "Humph! Somebody knockin' at
+mah door better look at what dey doin' or dey gwine git into a peck of
+trouble."
+
+He turned his back on me and reentered the galley.
+
+Then I looked aft, and saw Kipping and the steward grinning broadly.
+Before, I had been disconcerted. Now I was enraged. How had they turned old
+black Frank against me, I wondered? Kipping and the steward, whom the negro
+disliked above all people on board! So the steward and the carpenter and
+Kipping were working hand in glove! And Mr. Falk probably was in the same
+boat with them. Where was Roger Hamlin, and what was he doing as supercargo
+to protect the goods below decks? Then I laughed shortly, though a little
+angrily, at my own childish impatience.
+
+Certainly any suspicions of danger to the cargo were entirely without
+foundations. Mr. Falk--Captain Falk, I must call him now--might have a
+disagreeable personality, but there was nothing to indicate that he was not
+in most respects a competent officer, or that the ship and cargo would
+suffer at his hands. The cook had been companionable in his own peculiar
+way and a very convenient friend indeed; but, after all, I could get along
+very well on my own resources.
+
+The difference that a change of officers makes in the life and spirit of a
+ship's crew is surprising to one unfamiliar with the sea. Captain Whidden
+had been a gentleman and a first-class sailor; by ordering our life
+strictly, though not harshly or severely, he had maintained that efficient,
+smoothly working organization which is best and pleasantest for all
+concerned. But Captain Falk was a master whose sails were cut on another
+pattern. He lacked Captain Whidden's straightforward, searching gaze. From
+the corners of his mouth lines drooped unpleasantly around his chin. His
+voice was not forceful and commanding. I was confident that under ordinary
+conditions he never would have been given a ship; I doubted even if he
+would have got a chief mate's berth. But fortune had played into his hands,
+and he now was our lawful master, resistance to whom could be construed as
+mutiny and punished in any court in the land.
+
+Never, while Captain Whidden commanded the ship, would the steward and the
+carpenter have deserted their work and have hidden themselves away in the
+cook's galley. Never, I was positive, would such a pair of officers as
+Kipping and old Davie Paine have been promoted from the forecastle. To be
+sure, the transgressions of the carpenter and the steward were only petty
+as yet, and if no worse came of our new situation, I should be very foolish
+to take it all so seriously. But it was not easy to regard our situation
+lightly. There were too many straws to show the direction of the wind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE TREASURE-SEEKER
+
+
+It was a starlit night while we still lingered off the coast of Sumatra for
+water and fresh vegetables. The land was low and black against the steely
+green of the sky, and a young moon like a silver thread shone in the west.
+Blodgett, the new man in our watch, was the centre of a little group on the
+forecastle.
+
+He was small and wrinkled and very wise. The more I saw and heard of him,
+the more I marveled that he had not attracted my attention before; but up
+to this point in the voyage it was only by night that he had appeared
+different from other men, and I thought of him only as a prowler in the
+dark.
+
+In some ways he was like a cat. By day he would sit in corners in the sun
+when opportunity offered, or lurk around the galley, shirking so brazenly,
+that the men were amused rather than angry. Even at work he was as slow and
+drowsy as an old cat, half opening his sleepy eyes when the officers called
+him to account, and receiving an occasional kick or cuff with the same mild
+surprise that a favorite cat might show. But once darkness had fallen,
+Blodgett was a different man. He became nervously wakeful. His eyes
+distended and his face lighted with strange animation. He walked hither and
+yon. He fairly arched his neck. And sometimes, when some ordinary incident
+struck his peculiar humor, he would throw back his head, open his great
+mouth, and utter a screech of wild laughter for all the world like the yowl
+of a tom-cat.
+
+On that particular night he walked the forecastle, keeping close to the
+bulwarks, till the rest of us assembled by the rigging and watched him with
+a kind of fascination. After a time he saw us gathered there and came over
+to where we were. His eyes were large and his wrinkled features twitched
+with eagerness. He seemed very old; he had traveled to the farthest lands.
+
+"Men," he cried in his thin, windy voice, "yonder's the moon."
+
+The moon indeed was there. There was no reason to gainsay him. He stood
+with it over his left shoulder and extended his arms before him, one
+pointing somewhat to the right, the other to the left. "The right hand is
+the right way," he cried, "but the left we'll never leave."
+
+We stared at the man and wondered if he were mad.
+
+"No," he said, smiling at our puzzled glances, "we'll never leave the
+left."
+
+"Belay that talk," said one of the men sharply. "Ye'll have to steer a
+clearer course than that if you want us to follow you."
+
+Blodgett smiled. "The course is clear," he replied. "Yonder"--he waved his
+right hand--"is Singapore and the Chinese Sea and Whampoa. It's the right
+course. Our orders is for that course. Our cargo is for that course. It's
+the course that will make money for the owners. It's the right--you
+understand?--my right hand and the right course according to orders. But
+yonder"--this time he waved his left hand--"is the course that won't be
+left. And yet it's the left you know--my left hand."
+
+He explained his feeble little joke with an air of pride.
+
+"Why won't it be left?" the gruff seaman demanded.
+
+"Because," said Blodgett, "we ain't going to leave it. There's gold there
+and no end of treasure. Do you suppose Captain Falk is going to leave it
+all for some one else to get? He's going to sail through Malacca Strait and
+across the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta. That's what he's going to do. I've
+been in India myself and seen the heaps of gold lying on the ground by the
+money-changer's door and no body watching it but a sleepy Gentoo."
+
+"But what's this treasure you're talking about," some one asked.
+
+"Sure," said Blodgett in a husky whisper, "it's a treasure such as never
+was heard of before. There's barrels and barrels of gold and diamonds and
+emeralds and rubies and no end of such gear. There's idols with crowns of
+precious stones, and eyes in their carved heads that would pay a king's
+ransom. There's money enough in gold mohurs and rupees to buy the Bank of
+England."
+
+It was a cock-and-bull story that the little old man told us; but, absurd
+though it was, he had an air of impressive sincerity; and although every
+one of us would have laughed the yarn out of meeting had it been told of
+Captain Whidden, affairs had changed in the last days aboard ship.
+Certainly we did not trust Captain Falk. I thought of the cook's dark
+words, "A little roun' hole in the back of his head--he was shot f'om
+behine!" As we followed the direction of Blodgett's two hands,--the right
+to the northeast and the Chinese shore, the left to the northwest and the
+dim lowlands of Sumatra that lay along the road to Burma,--anything seemed
+possible. Moon-madness was upon us, and we were carried away by the mystery
+of the night.
+
+Such madness is not uncommon. Of tales in the fore-castle during a long
+voyage there is no end. Extraordinary significance is attributed to trivial
+happenings in the daily life of the crew, and the wonders of the sea and
+the land are overshadowed completely by simple incidents that superstitious
+shipmates are sure to exaggerate and to dwell upon.
+
+After a time, though, as Blodgett walked back and forth along the bulwark,
+like a cat that will not go into the open, my sanity came back to me.
+
+"That's all nonsense," I said--perhaps too sharply; "Mr. Falk is an honest
+seaman. His whole future would be ruined if he attempted any such thing as
+that."
+
+"Ay, hear the boy," Blodgett muttered sarcastically. "What does the boy
+think a man rich enough to buy all the ships in the king's navy will care
+for such a future as Captain Falk has in front of him? Hgh! A boy that
+don't know enough to call his captain by his proper title!"
+
+Blodgett fairly bristled in his indignation, and I said no more, although I
+knew well enough--or thought I did--that such a scheme was quite too wild
+to be plausible. Captain Falk might play a double game, but not such a
+silly double game as that.
+
+"No," said Bill Hayden solemnly, as if voicing my own thought, "the captain
+ain't going to spoil his good name like that." Poor, stupid old Bill!
+
+Blodgett snorted angrily, but the others laughed at Bill--silly old butt of
+the forecastle, daft about his little girl!--and after speculating at
+length concerning the treasure that Blodgett had described so vaguely, fell
+at last into a hot argument about how far a skipper could disobey the
+orders of his owners without committing piracy.
+
+Thus began the rumor that revealed the scatterwitted convictions so
+characteristic of the strange, cat-like Blodgett, which later were to lead
+almost to death certain simple members of the crew; which served, by a
+freak of chance, to involve poor Bill Hayden in an affair that came to a
+tragic end; and which, by a whim of fortune almost as remote, though
+happier, placed me in closer touch with Roger Hamlin than I had been since
+the Island Princess sailed from Salem harbor.
+
+An hour later I saw the cook standing silently by his galley. He gave me
+neither look nor word, although he must have known that I was watching him,
+but only puffed at his rank old pipe and stared at the stars and the hills.
+I wondered if the jungle growth reminded him of his own African tropics; if
+behind his grim, seamed face an unsuspected sense of poetry lurked, a sort
+of half-beast, half-human imagination.
+
+Never glancing at me, never indicating by so much as a quiver of his black
+features that he had perceived my presence, he sighed deeply, walked to the
+rail and knocked the dead ashes from his pipe into the water. He then
+turned and went into the galley and barricaded himself against intruders,
+there to stay until, some time in the night, he should seek his berth in
+the steerage for the few hours of deep sleep that were all his great body
+required. But as he passed me I heard him murmuring to himself, "Dat Bill
+Hayden, he betteh look out, yass, sah. He say Mistah Captain Falk don't
+want to go to spoil his good name. Dat Hay den he betteh look out."
+
+With a bang of his plank door the old darky shut himself away from all of
+us in the darkness of his little kingdom of pots and pans.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+WHICH APPROACHES A CRISIS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN GOLD
+
+
+Unquestionably the negro had known that I was there. Never otherwise could
+he have ignored me so completely. I was certain too, that his cryptic
+remarks about Bill Hayden were intended for my ears, for he never acted
+without a reason, obscure, perhaps, and far-fetched, but always, according
+to his own queer notions, sufficient.
+
+Sometimes it seemed as if he despised me; sometimes, as if he were
+concealing a warm, friendly regard for me.
+
+An hour later, hearing the murmer of low voices, I discovered a little
+group of men by the mainmast; and moved by the curiosity that more than
+once had led me where I had no business to go, I silently approached.
+
+"Ah," said one of the men, "so you're keeping a weather eye out for my good
+name, are you?" It was Captain Falk.
+
+I was startled. It seemed as if the old African were standing at my
+shoulder, saying, "What did Ah told you, hey?" The cook had used almost
+those very words. Where, I wondered, had he got them? It was almost
+uncanny.
+
+"No, sir," came the reply,--it was poor Bill Hayden's voice,--"no, sir, I
+didn't say that. I said--"
+
+"Well, what _did_ you say? Speak up!"
+
+"Why, sir, it--well, it wasn't that, I know. I wouldn't never ha' said
+that. I--well, sir, it sounded something like that, I got to admit--I--I
+ain't so good at remembering, sir, as I might be."
+
+The shadowy figures moved closer together.
+
+"You'll admit, then, that it _sounded_ like that?" There was the thud of a
+quick blow. "I'll show you. I don't care what you _said_, as long as that
+was what you _meant_. Take that! I'll show you."
+
+"Oh!--I--that's just it, sir, don't hit me!--It may have sounded like that,
+but--Oh!--it never meant anything like that. I can't remember just how the
+words was put together--I ain't so good at remembering but--Oh!--"
+
+The scene made me feel sick, it was so brutal; yet there was nothing that
+the rest of us could do to stop it.
+
+Captain Falk was in command of the ship.
+
+I heard a mild laugh that filled me with rage. "That's the way to make 'em
+take back their talk, captain. Give him a good one," said the mild voice.
+"He ain't the only one that 'll be better for a sound beating."
+
+
+There was a scuffle of footsteps, then I heard Bill cry out, "Oh--oh!--oh!"
+
+Suddenly a man broke from the group and fled along the deck.
+
+"Come back here, you scoundrel!" the captain cried with vile oaths; "come
+back here, or I swear I'll seize you up and lash you to a bloody pulp."
+
+The fugitive now stood in the bow, trembling, and faced those who were
+approaching him. "Don't," he cried piteously, "I didn't go to do nothing."
+
+"Oh, no, not you!" said the mild voice, followed by a mild laugh. "He
+didn't do nothing, captain."
+
+"Not he!" Captain Falk muttered. "I'll show him who's captain here."
+
+There was no escape for the unfortunate man. They closed in on him and
+roughly dragged him from his retreat straight aft to the quarter-deck, and
+there I heard their brief discussion.
+
+"Hadn't you better call up the men, captain?" asked the mild voice. "It'll
+do 'em good, I'll warrant you."
+
+"No," the captain replied, hotly. "This is a personal affair. Strip him and
+seize him up."
+
+I heard nothing more for a few minutes, but I could see them moving about,
+and presently I distinguished Bill's bare back and arms as they
+spread-eagled him to the rigging.
+
+Then the rope whistled in the air and Bill moaned.
+
+Unable to endure the sight, I was turning away, when some one coming from
+the cabin broke in upon the scene.
+
+"Well," said Roger Hamlin, "what's all this about?"
+
+Roger's calm voice and composed manner were so characteristic of him that
+for the moment I could almost imagine myself at home in Salem and merely
+passing him on the street.
+
+"I'll have you know, sir," said Captain Falk, "that I'm master here."
+
+"Evidently, sir."
+
+"Then what do you mean, sir, by challenging me like that?"
+
+"From what I have heard, I judge that the punishment is out of proportion
+to the offense, even if the steward's yarn was true."
+
+"I'll have you know, that I'm the only man aboard this ship that has any
+judgment," Falk snarled.
+
+"Judgment ?" Roger exclaimed; and the twist he gave the word was so funny
+that some one actually snickered.
+
+"Yes, judgment !" Falk roared; and he turned on Roger with all the anger of
+his mean nature choking his voice. "I'll--I'll beat you, you young upstart,
+you! I'll beat you in that man's place," he cried, with a string of oaths.
+
+"No," said Roger very coolly, "I think you won't."
+
+"By heaven, I will!"
+
+The two men faced each other like two cocks in the pit at the instant
+before the battle. There was a deathly silence on deck.
+
+Such a scene, as I saw it there, if put on the stage in a theatre, would be
+a drama in itself without word or action. The sky was bright with stars;
+the land lay low and dark against the horizon; the sea whispered round the
+ship and sparkled with golden phosphorescence. Over our heads the masts
+towered to slender black shafts, which at that lofty height seemed far too
+frail to support the great network of rigging and spars and close-furled
+canvas. Dwarfed by the tall masts, by the distances of the sea, and by the
+vastness of the heavens, the small black figures stood silent on the
+quarter-deck. But one of those men was bound half-naked to the rigging, and
+two faced each other in attitudes that by outline alone, for we could
+discern the features of neither, revealed antagonism and defiance.
+
+"No," said Roger once more, very coolly, "I think you won't."
+
+As the captain lifted his rope to hit Bill again, Roger stepped forward.
+
+The captain looked sharply at him; then with a shrug he said, "Oh, well,
+the fellow's had enough. Cut him down, cut him down."
+
+So they unlashed Bill, and he came forward with his clothes in his arms and
+one long, raw welt across his back.
+
+"Now, what did I say?" he whimpered. "What did I say to make 'em do like
+that?"
+
+What had he said, indeed? Certainly nothing culpable. Some one had twisted
+his innocent remarks in such a way as to irritate the captain and had
+carried tales to the cabin. With decent officers such a thing never would
+have happened. Affairs had run a sad course since Captain Falk had read the
+burial service over Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas, both of whom had been
+strict, fair, honorable gentlemen. There was a sober time in the forecastle
+that night, and none of us had much to say.
+
+Next day we sent a boat ashore again, and got information that led us to
+sail along five miles farther, where there was a settlement from which we
+got a good supply of water and vegetables. This took another day, and on
+the morning of the day following we made sail once more and laid our course
+west of Lingga Island, which convinced us for a time that we really were
+about to bear away through Malacca Strait and on to Burma, at the very
+least.
+
+I almost believed it myself, India seemed so near; and Blodgett, sleepy by
+day, wakeful by night, prowled about with an air of triumph. But in the
+forenoon watch Roger Hamlin came forward openly and told me certain things
+that were more momentous than any treasure-hunting trip to India that
+Blodgett ever dreamed of.
+
+Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping--I suppose they must be given their titles
+now--watched him, and I could see that they didn't like it. They exchanged
+glances and stared after him suspiciously, even resentfully; but there
+was nothing that they could do or say. So he came on slowly and
+confidently, looking keenly from one man to another as he passed.
+
+By this time the two parties on board were sharply divided, and from the
+attitude of the men as they met Roger's glance their partisanship was
+pretty plainly revealed. The two from Boston, who were, I was confident,
+on friendly and even familiar terms with Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping, gave
+him a half-concealed sneer. There was no doubt where their sympathies would
+lie, should Roger cross courses with our new master. The carpenter, working
+on a plank laid on deck, heard him coming, glanced up, and seeing who it
+was, continued at his labor without moving so much as a hair's breadth to
+let him by; the steward looked him in the eye brazenly and impersonally;
+and others of the crew, among them the strange Blodgett, treated him with a
+certain subtle rudeness, even contempt. Yet here and there a man was glad
+to see him coming and gave him a cordial nod, or a cheerful "Ay, ay, sir,"
+in answer to whatever observation he let fall.
+
+The cook alone, as I watched the scene with close interest, I could not
+understand. To a certain extent he seemed surly, to a certain extent,
+subservient. Perhaps he intended that we--and others--should be mystified.
+
+One thing I now realized for the first time: although the crew was divided
+into two cliques, the understanding was much more complete on the side of
+Captain Falk. Among those who enjoyed the favor of our new officers there
+was, I felt sure, some secret agreement, perhaps even some definite
+organization. There seemed to be a unity of thought and manner that only a
+common purpose could explain, whereas the rest drifted as the wind blew.
+
+"Ben," Roger said, coming to me where I sat on the forecastle, "I want to
+talk to you. Step over by the mast."
+
+I followed him, though surprised.
+
+"Here we can see on all sides," he said. "There are no hiding-places within
+earshot. Ben"--He hesitated as if to find the right words.
+
+All were watching us now, the captain and the mate from the quarter-deck,
+the others from wherever they happened to be.
+
+"I am loath to draw your sister's younger brother into danger," Roger
+began. His adjective was tactfully chosen. "I am almost equally reluctant
+to implicate you in what seems likely to confront us, because you are an
+old friend of mine and a good deal younger than I am. But when the time
+comes to go home, Ben, I'm sure we want to be able to look your sister and
+all the others squarely in the eyes, with our hands clean and our
+consciences clear--if we go home. How about it, Ben?"
+
+
+I was too bewildered to answer, and in Roger's eyes something of his old
+twinkle appeared.
+
+"Ultimately," he continued, grave once more and speaking still in enigmas,
+"we shall be vindicated in any case. But I fear that, before then, I, for
+one, shall have to clasp hands with mutiny, perhaps with piracy. How would
+you like that, Ben, with a thundering old fight against odds, a fight that
+likely enough will leave us to sleep forever on one of these green islands
+hereabouts?"
+
+Still I did not understand.
+
+Roger regarded me thoughtfully. "Tell me all that you know about our
+cargo."
+
+"Why," said I, finding my tongue at last, "it's ginseng and woollen goods
+for Canton. That's all I know."
+
+"Then you don't know that at this moment there is one hundred thousand
+dollars in gold in the hold of the Island Princess?"
+
+"What?" I gasped.
+
+"One hundred thousand dollars in gold."
+
+I could not believe my ears. Certainly, so far as I was concerned, the
+secret had been well kept.
+
+Then a new thought came to me, "Does Captain Falk know?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," said Roger, "Captain Falk knows."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A STRANGE TALE
+
+
+Roger Hamlin's words were to linger a long time in my ears, and so far as I
+then could see, there was little to say in reply. A hundred thousand
+dollars in gold had bought, soul and body, many a better man than Captain
+Falk. At that very moment Falk was watching us from the quarter-deck with
+an expression on his face that was partly an amused smile, partly a sneer.
+Weak and conceited though he was, he was master of that ship and crew in
+more ways than one.
+
+But Roger had not finished. "Do you remember, Ben," he continued in a low
+voice, but otherwise unmindful of those about us, "that some half a dozen
+years ago, when Thomas Webster was sore put to it for enough money to
+square his debts and make a clean start, the brig Vesper, on which he had
+sent a venture, returned him a profit so unbelievably great that he was
+able to pay his creditors and buy from the Shattucks the old Eastern
+Empress, which he fitted out for the voyage to Sumatra that saved his
+fortunes?"
+
+I remembered it vaguely--I had been only a small boy when it happened--and
+I listened with keenest interest. The Websters owned the Island Princess.
+
+"Not a dozen people know all the story of that voyage. It's been a kind of
+family secret with the Websters. Perhaps they're ashamed to be so deeply
+indebted to a Chinese merchant. Well, it's a story I shouldn't tell under
+other conditions, but in the light of all that's come to pass, it's best
+you should hear the whole tale, Ben; and in some ways it's a fine tale,
+too. The Websters, as you probably know, had had bad luck, what with three
+wrecks and pirates in the West Indies. They were pretty much by the head in
+those days, and it was a dark outlook before them, when young Webster
+signed the Vesper's articles as first officer and went aboard, with all
+that the old man could scrape together for a venture, and with the future
+of his family hanging in the balance. At Whampoa young Webster went up to
+the Hong along with the others, and drove what bargains he could, and
+cleared a tidy little sum. But it was nowhere near enough to save the
+family. If only they could get the money to tide them over, they'd weather
+the gale. If not, they'd go on a lee shore. Certain men--you'd know their
+names, but such things are better forgotten--were waiting to attach the
+ships the Websters had on the ways, and if the ships were attached there
+would be nothing left for the Websters but stools in somebody's
+counting-house.
+
+"As I've heard the story, young Webster was waiting by the river for his
+boat, with a face as long as you'd hope to see, when a Chinese who'd been
+watching him from a little distance came up and addressed him in such
+pidgin English as he could muster and asked after his father. Of course
+young Webster was taken by surprise, but he returned a civil answer, and
+the two fell to talking together. It seemed that, once upon a time, when
+the Chinese was involved, head and heels, with some rascally down-east
+Yankee, old man Webster had come to the rescue and had got him out of the
+scrape with his yellow hide whole and his moneybags untapped.
+
+"The Chinaman seemed to suspect from the boy's long face that all was not
+as it should be, and he squeezed more or less of the truth out of the
+young fellow, had him up to the Hong again, gave him various gifts, and
+sent him back to America with five teak-wood chests. Just five ordinary
+teak-wood chests--but in those teak-wood chests, Ben, was the money that
+put the Websters on their feet again. The hundred thousand dollars below
+is for that Chinese merchant."
+
+It was a strange tale, but stranger tales than that were told in the old
+town from which we had sailed.
+
+"And Captain Falk--?" I began questioningly.
+
+"Captain Falk was never thought of as a possible master of this ship."
+
+"Will he try to steal the money?"
+
+Roger raised his brows. "Steal it? Steal is a disagreeable word. He thinks
+he has a grievance because he was not given the chief mate's berth to begin
+with. He says, at all events, that he will not hand over any such sum to a
+yellow heathen. He thinks he can return it to the owners two-fold. Although
+he seldom reads his Bible, I believe he referred to the man who was given
+ten talents."
+
+"But the owners' orders!" I exclaimed.
+
+"The owners' orders in that respect were secret. They were issued to
+Captain Whidden and to me, and Captain Falk refuses to accept my version of
+them."
+
+"And you?"
+
+Roger smiled and looked me hard in the eye. "I am going to see that they
+are carried out," he said. "The Websters would be grievously disappointed
+if this commission were not discharged. Also--" his eyes twinkled in the
+old way--"I am not convinced that Captain Falk is in all respects an
+honest--no, let us not speak too harshly--let us say, a _reliable_ man."
+
+"So there'll be a fight," I mused.
+
+"We'll see," Roger replied. "In any case, you know the story. Are you with
+me?"
+
+After fifty years I can confess without shame that I was frightened when
+Roger asked me that question, for Roger and I were only two, and Falk, by
+hook or by crook, had won most of the others to his side. There was Bill
+Hayden, to be sure, on whom we could count; but he was a weak soul at best,
+and of the cook's loyalty to Roger and whatever cause he might espouse I
+now held grave doubts. Yet I managed to reply, "Yes, Roger, I am with you."
+
+I thought of my sister when I said it, and of the white flutter of her
+handkerchief, which had waved so bravely from the old wharf when Roger and
+I sailed out of Salem harbor. After all, I was glad even then that I had
+answered as I did.
+
+"I'll have more to say later," said Roger; "but if I stay here much longer
+now, Falk and Kipping will be breaking in upon us." And, turning, he coolly
+walked aft.
+
+Falk and Kipping were still watching us with sneers, and not a few of the
+crew gave us hostile glances as we separated. But I looked after Roger with
+an affection and a confidence that I was too young fully to appreciate. I
+only realized that he was upright and fearless, and that I was ready to
+follow him anywhere.
+
+More and more I was afraid of the influence that Captain Falk had
+established in the forecastle. More and more it seemed as if he actually
+had entered into some lawless conspiracy with the men. Certainly they
+grumbled less than before, and accepted greater discomforts with better
+grace; and although I found myself excluded from their councils without any
+apparent reason, I overheard occasional snatches of talk from which I
+gathered that they derived great satisfaction from their scheme, whatever
+it was. Even the cook would have none of me in the galley of an evening;
+and Roger in the cabin where no doubt he was fighting his own battles, was
+far away from the green hand in the forecastle. I was left to my own
+devices and to Bill Hayden.
+
+To a great extent, I suppose, it counted against me that I was the son of a
+gentleman. But if I was left alone forward, so Roger, I learned now and
+then, was left alone aft.
+
+Continually I puzzled over the complacency of the men. They would nod and
+smile and glance at me pityingly, even when I was getting my meat from the
+same kids and my tea from the same pot; and chance phrases, which I caught
+now and then, added to my uneasiness.
+
+Once old Blodgett, prowling like a cat in the night, was telling how he was
+going to "take his money and buy a little place over Ipswich way. There's
+nice little places over Ipswich way where a man can settle snug as you
+please and buy him a wife and end his days in comfort. We'll go home by way
+of India, too, I'll warrant you, and take each of us our handful of round
+red rubies. Right's right, but right'll be left--mind what I tell you."
+Another time--on the same day, as I now recall it--I overheard the
+carpenter saying that he was going to build a brick house in Boston up on
+Temple Place. "And there'll be fan-lights over the door," he said, "their
+panels as thin as rose-leaves, and leaded glass in a fine pattern." The
+carpenter was a craftsman who aspired to be an artist.
+
+But where did old Blodgett or the carpenter hope to get the money to
+indulge the tastes of a prosperous merchant? I suspected well enough the
+answer to that question, and I was not far wrong.
+
+The cook remained inscrutable. I could not fathom the expressions of his
+black frowning face. Although Captain Falk of course had no direct
+communication with him openly, I learned through Bill Hayden that
+indirectly he treated him with tolerant and friendly patronage. It even did
+not surprise me greatly to be told that sometimes he secretly visited the
+galley after dark and actually hobnobbed with black Frank in his own
+quarters. It was almost incredible, to be sure; but so was much else in
+which Captain Falk was implicated, and I could see revealed now in the game
+that he was playing his desire to win and hold the men until they had
+served his ends, whatever those ends might be.
+
+"Yass, sah," black Frank would growl absently as he passed me without a
+glance, "dis am de most appetizin' crew eveh Ah cooked foh. Dey's got no
+mo' bottom to dey innards dan a sponge has. Ah's a-cookin' mah head off to
+feed dat bunch of wuthless man-critters, a-a-a-a-h!" And he would stump to
+the galley with a brimming pail of water in each hand.
+
+I came sadly to conclude that old Frank had found other friends more to his
+taste than the boy in the forecastle, and that Captain Falk, by trickery
+and favoritism, really was securing his grip on the crew. In all his petty
+manoeuvres and childish efforts to please the men and flatter them and make
+them think him a good officer to have over them, he had made up to this
+point only one or two false steps.
+
+Working our way north by west to the Straits of Singapore, and thence on
+into the China Sea, where we expected to take advantage of the last weeks
+of the southwest monsoon, we left far astern the low, feverous shores of
+Sumatra. There were other games than a raid on India to be played for
+money, and the men thought less and less now of the rubies of Burma and the
+gold mohurs and rupees of Calcutta.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+TROUBLE FORWARD
+
+
+In the starboard watch, one fine day when there was neither land nor sail
+in sight, Davie Paine was overseeing the work on the rigging and badly
+botching it. The old fellow was a fair seaman himself, but for all his deep
+voice and big body, his best friend must have acknowledged that as an
+officer he was hopelessly incompetent. "Now unlay the strands so," he would
+say. "No, that ain't right. No, so! No, that ain't right either. Supposing
+you form the eye so. No, that ain't right either."
+
+After a time we were smiling so broadly at his confused orders that we
+caught the captain's eye.
+
+He came forward quickly--say what you would against Captain Falk as an
+officer, no one could deny that he knew his business--and instantly he took
+in the whole unfortunate situation. "Well, _Mister_ Paine," he cried,
+sarcastically stressing the title, "are n't you man enough to unlay a bit
+of rope and make a Flemish eye?"
+
+Old Davie flushed in hopeless embarrassment, and even the men who had been
+chuckling most openly were sorry for him. That the captain had reason to be
+dissatisfied with the second mate's work, we were ready enough to admit;
+but he should have called him aside and rebuked him privately. We all, I
+think, regarded such open interference as unnecessary and unkind.
+
+"Why--y-yes, sir," Davie stammered.
+
+"To make you a Flemish eye," Captain Falk continued in cold sarcasm, "you
+unlay the end of the rope and open up the yarns. Then you half-knot some
+half the inside yarns over that bit of wood you have there, and scrape the
+rest of them down over the others, and marl, parcel, and serve them
+together. That's the way you go to make a Flemish eye. Now then, _Mister_
+Paine, see that you get a smart job done here and keep your eyes open, you
+old lubber. I thought you shipped for able seaman. A fine picture of an
+able seaman you are, you doddering old fool!"
+
+It is impossible to reproduce the meanness with which he gave his little
+lecture, or the patronizing air with which he walked away. Old Davie was
+quite taken aback by it and for a time he could not control his voice
+enough to speak. It was pitiful to see him drop all the pretensions of his
+office and, as if desiring only some friendly word, try to get back on the
+old familiar footing of the forecastle.
+
+"I know I ain't no great shakes of a scholar," he managed to mutter at
+last, "and I ain't no great shakes of a second mate. But he made me second
+mate, he did, and he hadn't ought to shame me in front of all the men, now
+had he? It was him that gave me the berth. If he don't like me in it, now
+why don't he take it away from me? I didn't want to be second mate when he
+made me do it, and I can't read figures good nor nothing. Now why don't he
+send me forrard if he don't like the way I do things?"
+
+The old man ran on in a pathetic monologue, for none of us felt exactly at
+liberty to put in our own oars, and he could find relief only in his
+incoherent talk. It had been a needless and unkind thing and the men almost
+unanimously disapproved of it. Why indeed should Captain Falk not send
+Davie back to the forecastle rather than make his life miserable aft? The
+captain was responsible only to himself for the appointment, and its tenure
+depended only on his own whims; but that, apparently, he had no intention
+of doing.
+
+"'Tain't right," old Blodgett murmured, careful not to let Captain Falk see
+him talking. "He didn't ought to use a man like that."
+
+"No, he didn't," Neddie Benson said in his squeaky voice, turning his face
+so that neither Davie nor Captain Falk should see the motion of his lips.
+"I didn't ought to ship for this voyage, either. The fortune teller--she
+was a lady, she was, a nice lady--she says, 'Neddie, there'll be a dark man
+and a light man and a store of trouble.' She kind of liked me, I think. But
+I up and come. I'm always reckless."
+
+A ripple of low, mild laughter, which only Kipping could have uttered,
+drifted forward, and the men exchanged glances and looked furtively at old
+Davie.
+
+The murmur of disapproval went from mouth to mouth, until for a time I
+dared hope that Captain Falk had quite destroyed the popularity that he had
+tried so hard to win. But, though Davie was grieved by the injustice and
+though the men were angry, they seemed soon to forget it in the excitement
+of that mysterious plot from which Roger and I were virtually the only ones
+excluded.
+
+Nevertheless, like certain other very trivial happenings aboard the Island
+Princess, Captain Falk's unwarrantable insult to Davie Paine--it seems
+incongruous to call him "mister"--was to play its part later in events that
+as yet were only gathering way.
+
+We had not seen much of Kipping for a time, and perhaps it was because he
+had kept so much to himself that to a certain extent we forgot his sly,
+tricky ways. His laugh, mild and insinuating, was enough to call them to
+mind, but we were to have a yet more disagreeable reminder.
+
+All day Bill Hayden had complained of not feeling well and now he leaned
+against the deck-house, looking white and sick. Old Davie would never have
+troubled him, I am sure, but Kipping was built by quite another mould.
+
+Unaware of what was brewing, I turned away, sorry for poor Bill, who seemed
+to be in much pain, and in response to a command from Kipping, I went aloft
+with an "Ay, ay sir," to loose the fore-royal. Having accomplished my
+errand, I was on my way down again, when I heard a sharp sound as of
+slapping.
+
+Startled, I looked at the deck-house. I was aware at the same time that the
+men below me were looking in the same direction.
+
+The sound of slapping was repeated; then I heard a mild, gentle voice
+saying, "Oh, he's sick, is he? Poor fellow! Ain't it hard to be sick away
+from home?" Slap--slap. "Well, I declare, what do you suppose we'd better
+do about it? Shan't we send for the doctor? Poor fellow!" Slap--slap. "Ah!
+ah! ah!" Kipping's voice hardened. "You blinking, bloody old fool. You
+would turn on me, would you? You would give me one, would you? You would
+sojer round the deck and say you're sick, would you? I 'll show you--take
+that--I'll show you!"
+
+Now, as I sprang on deck and ran out where I could see what was going
+forward, I heard Bill's feeble reply. "Don't hit me, sir. I didn't go to do
+nothing. I'm sick. I've got a pain in my innards. I _can't_ work--so help
+me, I _can't_ work."
+
+"Aha!" Again Kipping laughed mildly. "Aha! _Can't_ work, eh? I'll teach you
+a lesson."
+
+Bill staggered against the deck-house and clumsily fell, pressing his hands
+against his side and moaning.
+
+"Hgh!" Kipping grunted. "Hgh!"
+
+At that moment the day flashed upon my memory when I had sat on one side of
+that very corner while Kipping attempted to bully Bill on the other side of
+it--the day when Bill had turned on his tormentor. I now understood some of
+Kipping's veiled references, and a great contempt for the man who would use
+the power and security of his office to revenge himself on a fellow seaman
+who merely had stood up bravely for his rights swept over me. But what
+could I or the others do? Kipping now was mate, and to strike him would be
+open mutiny. Although thus far, in spite of the dislike with which he and
+Captain Falk regarded me, my good behavior and my family connections had
+protected me from abuse, I gladly would have forfeited such security to
+help Bill; but mutiny was quite another affair.
+
+We all stood silent, while Kipping berated Bill with many oaths, though
+poor Bill was so white and miserable that it was almost more than we could
+endure. I, for one, thought of his little girl in Newburyport, and I
+remember that I hoped she might never know of what her loving, stupid old
+father was suffering.
+
+Enraged to fury by nothing more or less than Bill's yielding to his
+attacks, Kipping turned suddenly and reached for the carpenter's mallet,
+which lay where Chips had been working nearby. With a round oath, he
+yelled, "I'll make you grovel and ask me to stop."
+
+Kipping had moved quickly, but old Bill moved more quickly still. Springing
+to his feet like a flash, with a look of anguish on his face such as I hope
+I never shall see again, he warded off a blow of the mallet with his hand
+and, running to the side, scrambled clean over the bulwark into the sea.
+
+We stood there like men in a waxwork for a good minute at the very least;
+and if you think a minute is not a long time, try it with your eyes shut.
+Kipping's angry snarl was frozen on his mean features,--it would have been
+ludicrous if the scene had not been so tragic,--and his outstretched hand
+still held the mallet at the end of the blow. The carpenter's mouth was
+open in amazement. Neddie Benson, the first to move or break the silence,
+had spread his hands as if he were about to clutch at a butterfly or a
+beetle; dropping them to his side, he gasped huskily, "She said there'd be
+a light man and a dark man--I--oh, Lord!"
+
+It was the cook, as black as midnight and as inscrutable as a figurehead,
+who brought us to our senses. Silently observing all that had happened, he
+had stood by the galley, without lifting his hand or changing the
+expression of a single feature; but now, taking his pipe from his mouth, he
+roared, "Man ovehboa'd!" Then, snatching up the carpenter's bench with one
+hand and gathering his great body for the effort, he gave a heave of his
+shoulders and tossed the bench far out on the water.
+
+As if waking from a dream, Mr. Kipping turned aft, smiling scornfully, and
+said with a deliberation that seemed to me criminal, "Put down the helm!"
+
+So carelessly did he speak, that the man at the wheel did not hear him, and
+he was obliged to repeat the order a little more loudly. "Didn't you hear
+me? I say, put down the helm."
+
+"Put down the helm, sir," came the reply; and the ship began to head up in
+the wind.
+
+At this moment Captain Falk, having heard the cook's shout, appeared on
+deck, breathing hard, and took command. However little I liked Captain
+Falk, I must confess in justice to him that he did all any man could have
+done under the circumstances. While two or three hands cleared away a
+quarter-boat, we hauled up the mainsail, braced the after yards and raised
+the head sheets, so that the ship, with her main yards aback, drifted down
+in the general direction in which we thought Bill must be.
+
+Not a man of us expected ever to see Bill again. He had flung himself
+overboard so suddenly, and so much time had elapsed, that there seemed to
+be no chance of his keeping himself afloat. I saw that the smile actually
+still hovered on Kipping's mean, mild mouth. But all at once the cook, near
+whom I was standing, grasped my arm and muttered almost inaudibly, "If dey
+was to look behine, dey'd get ahead, yass, sah."
+
+Taking his hint, I looked astern and cried out loudly. Something was
+bobbing at the end of the log line. It was Bill clinging desperately.
+
+When we got him on board, he was nearer dead than alive, and even the stiff
+drink that the captain poured between his blue lips did not really revive
+him. He moaned continually and now and then he cried out in pain.
+Occasionally, too, he tried to tell us about his little girl at
+Newburyport, and rambled on about how he had married late in life and had a
+good wife and a comfortable home, and before long, God willing, he would be
+back with them once more and would never sail the seas again. It was all so
+natural and homely that I didn't realize at the time that Bill was
+delirious; but when I helped the men carry him below, I was startled to
+find his face so hot, and presently it came over me that he did not
+recognize me.
+
+Poor old stupid Bill! He meant so well, and he wished so well for all of
+us! It was hard that he should be the one who could not keep out of harm's
+way.
+
+But there were other things to think of, more important even than the fate
+of Bill Hayden, and one of them was an extraordinary interview with the
+cook.
+
+I heard laughter in the galley that night, and lingered near as long as I
+dared, with a boy's jealous desire to learn who was enjoying the cook's
+hospitality. By his voice I soon knew that it was the steward, and
+remembering how black Frank once was ready to deceive him for the sake of
+giving me a piece of pie, I was more disconsolate than ever. After a while
+I saw him leave, but I thought little of that. I still had two more hours
+to stand watch, so I paced along in the darkness, listening to the sound of
+the waves and watching the bright stars.
+
+When presently I again passed the galley I thought I heard a suspicious
+sound there. Later I saw something move by the door. But neither time did I
+go nearer. I had no desire for further rebuffs from the old negro.
+
+When I passed a third time, at a distance of only a foot or two, I was
+badly startled. A long black arm reached out from the apparently closed
+door; a black hand grasped me, lifted me bodily from the floor, and
+silently drew me into the galley, which was as dark as Egypt. I heard the
+cook close the door behind me and bolt it and cover the deadlight with a
+tin pan. What he was up to, I had not the remotest idea; but when he had
+barricaded and sealed every crack and cranny, he lighted a candle and set
+it on a saucer and glared at me ferociously.
+
+"Mind you, boy," he said in a very low voice, "don't you think Ah'm any
+friend of yo's. No, sah. Don't you think Ah'm doing nothin' foh you. No,
+sah. 'Cause Ah ain't. No, sah. Ah'm gwine make a fo'tune dis yeh trip, Ah
+am. Yass, sah. Dis yeh nigger's gwine go home putty darn well off. Yass,
+sah. So don't you think dis yeh nigger's gwine do nothin' foh you. No,
+sah."
+
+For a moment I was completely bewildered; then, as I recalled the darky's
+crafty and indirect ways, my confidence returned and I had the keenest
+curiosity to see what would be forthcoming.
+
+"Boys, dey's a pest," he grumbled. "Dey didn't had ought to have boys
+aboa'd ship. No, sah. Cap'n Falk, he say so, too."
+
+The negro was looking at me so intently that I searched his words for some
+hidden meaning; but I could find none.
+
+"No, sah, boys am de mos' discombobulationest eveh was nohow. Yass, sah.
+Dey's been su'thin' happen aft. Yass, sah. Ah ain't gwine tell no boy,
+nohow. No, sah. 'Taint dis nigger would go tell a boy dat Mistah Hamlin he
+have a riot with Mistah Cap'n Falk, no sah. Ah ain't gwine tell no boy dat
+Mistah Hamlin, he say dat Mistah Cap'n Falk he ain't holdin' to de right
+co'se, no, sah; nor dat Mistah Cap'n Falk he bristle up like a guinea
+gander and he say, while he's swearin' most amazin', dat he know what co'se
+he's sailin', no, sah. Ah ain't gwine tell no boy dat Mistah Hamlin, he say
+he am supercargo, an' dat he reckon he got orders f'om de owners; and
+Mistah Cap'n Falk, he say he am cap'n and he cuss su'thin' awful 'bout dem
+orders; and Mistah Roger Hamlin he say Mistah Cap'n Falk his clock am a
+hour wrong and no wonder Mistah Kipping am writing in de log-book dat de
+ship am whar she ain't; and Mistah Kipping he swear dre'ful pious and he
+say by golly he am writer of dat log-book and he reckon he know what's what
+ain't. No, sah, Ah ain't gwine tell a boy dem things 'cause Ah tell stew'd
+Ah ain't, an' stew'd, him an' me is great friends, what's gwine make a
+fo'tune _when Mistah Cap'n Falk git dat money_!"
+
+He said those last words in a whisper, and stared at me intently; in that
+same whisper, he repeated them, "When Mistah Cap'n Falk git dat money_!"
+
+Then, in a strangely meditative way, as if an unfamiliar process of thought
+suddenly occupied all his attention, he muttered absently, letting his eyes
+fall, "Seem like Ah done see dat Kipping befo'; Ah jes' can't put mah
+finger on him." It was the second time that he had made such a remark in my
+hearing.
+
+The candle guttered in the saucer that served for a candlestick, and its
+crazy, wavering light shone unsteadily on the black face of the cook, who
+continued to stare at me grimly and apparently in anger. A pan rattled as
+the ship rolled. Water splashed from a bucket. I watched the drops falling
+from the shelf. One--two--three--four--five--six--seven! Each with its
+_pht_, its little splash. They continued to drip interminably. I lost all
+count of them. And still the black face, motionless except for the wildly
+rolling eyes, stared at me across the galley stove.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+BILL HAYDEN COMES TO THE END OF HIS VOYAGE
+
+
+I was ejected from the galley as abruptly and strangely as I had been drawn
+into it. The candle went out at a breath from the great round lips; the big
+hand again closed on my shoulder and lifted me bodily from my chair. The
+door opened and shut, and there was I, dazed by my strange experience and
+bewildered by the story I had heard, outside on the identical spot from
+which I had been snatched ten minutes before.
+
+In my ears the negro's parting message still sounded, "Dis nigger wouldn't
+tell a boy one word, no sah, not dis nigger. If he was to tell a boy jest
+one leetle word, dat boy, he might lay hisself out ready foh a fight. Yass,
+sah."
+
+For a long time I puzzled over the whole extraordinary experience. It was
+so like a dream, that only the numbness of my arm where the negro's great
+fist had gripped it convinced me that the happenings of the night were
+real. But as I pondered, I found more and more significance in the cook's
+incoherent remarks, and became more and more convinced that their
+incoherence was entirely artful. Obviously, first of all, he was trying to
+pacify his conscience, which troubled him for breaking the promise of
+secrecy that he probably had given the steward, from whom he must have
+learned the things at which he had hinted. Also he had established for
+himself an alibi of a kind, if ever he should be accused of tattling about
+affairs in the cabin.
+
+That Captain Falk had promised to divide the money among the crew, I long
+had suspected; consequently that part of the cook's revelations did not
+surprise me. But the picture he gave of affairs in the cabin, disconnected
+though it was, caused me grave concern. After all, what could Roger do to
+preserve the owners' property or to carry out their orders? Captain Falk
+had all the men on his side, except me and perhaps poor old Bill Hayden.
+Indeed, I feared for Roger's own safety if he had detected that rascally
+pair in falsifying the log; he then would be a dangerous man when we all
+went back to Salem together. I stopped as if struck: what assurance had I
+that we should go back to Salem together--or singly, for that matter? There
+was no assurance whatever, that all, or any one of us, would ever go back
+to Salem. If they wished to make way with Roger, and with me too, for that
+matter, the green tropical seas would keep the secret until the end of
+time.
+
+I am not ashamed that I frankly was white with fear of what the future
+might bring. You can forgive in a boy weaknesses of which a man grown might
+have been guilty. But as I watched the phosphorescent sea and the stars
+from which I tried to read our course, I gradually overcame the terror that
+had seized me. I think that remembering my father and mother, and my
+sister, for whom I suspected that Roger cared more than I, perhaps, could
+fully realize, helped to compose me; and I am sure that the thought of the
+Roger I had known so long,--cool,  bold, resourceful, with that twinkle in
+his steady eyes--did much to renew my courage. When eight bells struck and
+some one called down the hatch, "Larbowlines ahoy," and the dim figures of
+the new watch appeared on deck, and we of the old watch went below, I was
+fairly ready to face whatever the next hours might bring.
+
+"Roger and I against them all," I thought, feeling very much a martyr,
+"unless," I mentally added, "Bill Hayden joins us." At that I actually
+laughed, so that Blodgett, prowling restlessly in the darkness, asked me
+crossly what was the matter. I should have been amazed and incredulous if
+anyone had told me that poor Bill Hayden was to play the deciding part in
+our affairs.
+
+He lay now in his bunk, tossing restlessly and muttering once in a while to
+himself. When I went over and asked if there was anything that I could do
+for him, he raised himself on his elbow and stared at me more stupidly than
+ever. It seemed to come to him slowly who I was. After a while he made out
+my face by the light of the dim, swinging lantern, and thanked me, and said
+if I would be so good as to give him a drink of water--He never completed
+the sentence; but I brought him a drink carefully, and when he had finished
+it, he thanked me again and leaned wearily back.
+
+His face seemed dark by the lantern-light, and I judged that it was still
+flushed. Muttering something about a "pain in his innards," he apparently
+went to sleep, and I climbed into my own bunk. The lantern swung more and
+more irregularly, and Bill tossed with ever-increasing uneasiness. When at
+last I dozed off, my own sleep was fitful, and shortly I woke with a start.
+
+Others, too, had waked, and I heard questions flung back and forth:--
+
+"Who was that yelled?"
+
+"Did you hear that? Tell me, did you hear it?"
+
+Some one spoke of ghosts,--none of us laughed,--and Neddie Benson whimpered
+something about the lady who told fortunes. "She said the light man and the
+dark man would make no end o' trouble," he cried; "and he--"
+
+"Keep still," another voice exclaimed angrily. "It was Bill Hayden," the
+voice continued. "He hollered."
+
+Getting out of my bunk, I crossed the forecastle. "Bill," I said, "are you
+all right?"
+
+He started up wildly. "Don't hit me!" he cried. "That wasn't what I said--
+it--I don't remember _just_ what I said, because I ain't good at
+remembering, but it wasn't that--don't-oh! oh!--I _know_ it wasn't that."
+
+Two of the men joined me, moving cautiously for the ship was pitching now
+in short, heavy seas.
+
+"What's that he's saying?" one of them asked.
+
+Before I could answer, Bill seemed suddenly to get control of himself.
+"Oh," he moaned. "I've got such a pain in my innards! I've got a rolling,
+howling old pain in my innards."
+
+There was little that we could do, so we smoothed his blankets and went
+back to our own. The Island Princess was pitching more fiercely than ever
+now, and while I watched the lantern swing and toss before I went to sleep,
+I heard old Blodgett saying something about squalls and cross seas. There
+was not much rest for us that night. No sooner had I hauled the blankets to
+my chin and closed my eyes, than a shout came faintly down to us,
+"All-hands--on deck!"
+
+Some one called, "Ay, ay," and we rolled out again wearily--all except Bill
+Hayden whose fitful tossing seemed to have settled at last into deep sleep.
+
+Coming on deck, we found the ship scudding under close-reefed maintopsail
+and reefed foresail, with the wind on her larboard quarter. A heavy sea
+having blown up, all signs indicated that a bad night was before us; and
+just as we emerged from the hatch, she came about suddenly, which brought
+the wind on the starboard quarter and laid all aback.
+
+In the darkness and rain and wind, we sprang to the ropes. Mr. Kipping was
+forward at his post on the forecastle and Captain Falk was on the
+quarter-deck. As the man at the wheel put the helm hard-a-starboard, we
+raised the fore tack and sheet, filled the foresail and shivered the
+mainsail, thus bringing the wind aft again, where we met her with the helm
+and trimmed the yards for her course. For the moment we were safe, but
+already it was blowing a gale, and shortly we lay to, close-reefed, under
+what sails we were carrying.
+
+In a lull I heard Blodgett, who was pulling at the ropes by my side, say to
+a man just beyond him, "Ay, it's a good thing for _us_ that Captain Falk
+got command. We'd never make our bloody fortunes under the old officers."
+
+As the wind came again and drowned whatever else may have been said, I
+thought to myself that they never would have. Plainly, Captain Falk and
+Kipping had won over the simple-minded crew, which was ready to follow them
+with never a thought of the chance that that precious pair might run off
+with the spoils themselves and leave the others in the lurch.
+
+But now Kipping's indescribably disagreeable voice, which we all by this
+time knew so well, asked, "Has anybody seen that sojering old lubber,
+Hayden?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," Blodgett replied. "He's below sick."
+
+"Sick?" said the mild voice. "Sick is he? Supposing Blodgett, you go below
+and bring him on deck. He ain't sick, he's sojering."
+
+"But, sir,--" Blodgett began.
+
+"But what?" roared Kipping. His mildness changed to fierceness. "_You go_!"
+He snapped out the words, and Blodgett went.
+
+Poor stupid old Bill!
+
+When he appeared, Blodgett had him by the arm to help him.
+
+"You sojering, bloody fool," Kipping cried; "do you think I'm so blind I
+can't see through such tricks as yours?"
+
+A murmur of remonstrance came from the men, but Kipping paid no attention
+to it.
+
+"You think, do you, that I ain't on to your slick tricks? Take that."
+
+Bill never flinched.
+
+"So!" Kipping muttered. "So! Bring him aft."
+
+Though heavy seas had blown up, the squalls had subsided, and some of the
+men, for the moment unoccupied, trailed at a cautious distance after the
+luckless Bill. We could not hear what those on the quarterdeck said; but
+Blodgett, who stood beside me and stared into the darkness with eyes that I
+was convinced could see by night, cried suddenly, "He's fallen!"
+
+Then Captain Falk called, "Come here, two or three of you, and take this
+man below."
+
+Old Bill was moaning when we got there. "Sure," he groaned, "I've got a
+rolling--howling--old Barney's bull of a pain in my innards." But when we
+laid him in his bunk, he began to laugh queerly, and he seemed to pretend
+that he was talking to his little wee girl; for we heard him saying that
+her old father had come to her and that he was never going to leave her
+again.
+
+To me--only a boy, you must remember--it was a horrible experience, even
+though I did not completely understand all that was happening; and to the
+others old Bill's rambling talk seemed to bring an unnamed terror.
+
+All night he restlessly tossed, though he soon ceased his wild talking and
+slept lightly and fitfully. The men watching him were wakeful, too, and as
+I lay trying to sleep and trying not to see the swaying lantern and the
+fantastic shadows, I heard at intervals snatches of their low conversation.
+
+"They hadn't ought to 'a' called him out. It warn't human. A sick man has
+got _some_ rights," one of the men from Boston repeated interminably. He
+seemed unable to hold more than one idea at a time.
+
+Then Blodgett would say, "Ay, it don't seem right. But we've all got to
+stand by the skipper. That's how we'll serve our ends best. It don't do to
+get too much excited."
+
+I imagined that Blodgett's voice did not sound as if he were fully
+convinced of the doctrine he was preaching.
+
+"Ay," the other would return, "but they hadn't ought to 'a' called him out.
+It warn't human. A sick man has got _some_ rights, and he was allers
+quiet."
+
+They talked on endlessly, while I tried in vain to sleep and while poor
+Bill tossed away, getting no good from the troubled slumber that the Lord
+sent him.
+
+No sooner, it seemed to me, did I actually close my eyes than I woke and
+heard him moaning, "Water--a--drink--of--water."
+
+The others by then had left him, so I got up and fetched water, and he
+muttered something more about the "pain in his innards." Then my watch was
+called and I went on deck with the rest.
+
+For the most part it was a day of coarse weather. Now intermittent squalls
+from the southwest swept upon us with lightning and thunder, driving before
+them rain in solid sheets; now the ship danced in choppy waves, with barely
+enough wind to give her steerage-way and with a warm, gentle drizzle that
+wet us to the skin and penetrated into the forecastle, where blankets and
+clothing soon became soggy and uncomfortable. But the greater part of the
+time we lurched along in a gale of wind, with an occasional dash of rain,
+which we accepted as a compromise between those two worse alternatives, the
+cloudbursts that accompanied the squalls, and the enervating warm drizzle.
+
+That Bill Hayden did not stand watch with the others, no one, apparently,
+noticed. The men were glad enough to forget him, I think, and the officers
+let his absence pass, except Davie Paine, who found opportunity to inquire
+of me secretly about him and sadly shook his gray head at the tidings I
+gave.
+
+Below we could not forget him. I heard the larboard watch talking of it
+when they relieved us; and no sooner had we gone below in turn than
+Blodgett cried, "Look at old Bill! His face is all of a sweat."
+
+He was up on his elbow when we came down, staring as if he had expected
+some one; and when he saw who it was, he kept his eyes on the hatch as if
+waiting for still another to come. Presently he fell back in his bunk. "Oh,
+I've got such a pain in my innards," he moaned.
+
+By and by he began to talk again, but he seemed to have forgotten his pain
+completely, for he talked about doughnuts and duff, and Sundays ashore when
+he was a little shaver, and going to church, and about the tiny wee girl on
+the bank of the Merrimac who would be looking for her dad to come home, and
+lots of things that no one would have thought he knew. He seemed so natural
+now and so cheerful that I was much relieved about him, and I whispered to
+Blodgett that I thought Bill was better. But Blodgett shook his head so
+gravely that I was frightened in spite of my hopes, and we lay there, some
+of us awake, some asleep, while Bill rambled cheerily on and the lantern
+swung with the motion of the ship.
+
+To-day I remember those watches below at
+that time in the voyage as a succession of short unrestful snatches of
+sleep broken by vivid pictures of the most trivial things--the swinging
+lantern, the distorted shadows the muttered comments of the men, Bill
+leaning on his elbow at the edge of his bunk and staring toward the hatch
+as if some one long expected were just about to come. I do not pretend to
+understand the reason, but in my experience it is the trifling unimportant
+things that after a time of stress or tragedy are most clearly remembered.
+
+When next I woke I heard the bell--_clang-clang, clang-clang, clang-clang,
+clang_--faint and far off. Then I saw that Blodgett was sitting on the edge
+of his bunk, counting the strokes on his fingers. When he had finished he
+gravely shook his head and nodded toward Bill who was breathing harder now.
+"He's far gone," Blodgett whispered. "He ain't going to share in no
+split-up at Manila. He ain't going to put back again to India when we've
+got rid of the cargo. His time's come."
+
+I didn't believe a word that Blodgett said then, but I sat beside him as
+still as the grave while the forecastle lantern nodded and swung as
+casually as if old Bill were not, for all we knew, dying. By and by we
+heard the bell again, and some one called from the hatch, "Eight bells!
+Roll out!"
+
+The very monotony of our life--the watches below and on deck, each like
+every other, marked off by the faint clanging of the ship's bell--made
+Bill's sickness seem less dreadful. There is little to thrill a lad or
+even, after a time, to interest him, in the interminable routine of a long
+voyage.
+
+When we came on deck Davie Paine looked us over and said, "Where's Bill?"
+
+Blodgett shook his head. Even this simple motion had a sleepy quality that
+made me think of a cat.
+
+"I'm afraid, sir," he replied, "that Bill has stood his last watch."
+
+"So!" said old Davie, reflectively, in his deep voice, "so!--I was afraid
+of that." Ignorant though Davie was, and hopelessly incompetent as an
+officer, he had a certain kindly tolerance, increased, perhaps, by his own
+recent difficulties, that made him more approachable than any other man in
+the cabin. After a time he added, "I cal'ate I got to tell the captain."
+Davie's manner implied that he was taking us into his confidence.
+
+"Yes," Neddie Benson muttered under his breath, "tell the captain! If it
+wasn't for Mr. Kipping and the captain, Bill would be as able a man this
+minute as any one of us here. It didn't do to abuse him. He ain't got the
+spirit to stand up under it."
+
+Davie shuffled away without hearing what was said, and soon, instead of
+Captain Falk, Mr. Kipping appeared, bristling with anger.
+
+"What's all this?" he snapped, with none of the mildness that he usually
+affected. "Who says Bill Hayden has stood his last watch? Is mutiny
+brewing? I'll have you know I'm mate here, legal and lawful, and what's
+more I'll show you I'm mate in a way that none of you won't forget if he
+thinks he can try any more of his sojering on me. I'll fix him. You go
+forward, Blodgett, and drag him out by the scalp-lock."
+
+Blodgett walked off, keeping close to the bulwark, and five minutes later
+he was back again.
+
+Mr. Kipping grew very red. "Well, my man," he said in a way that made my
+skin creep, "are you a party to this little mutiny?"
+
+"N-no, sir," Blodgett stammered. "I--he-it ain't no use, he _can't_ come."
+
+The mate looked sternly at Blodgett, and I thought he was going to hit
+him; but instead, after a moment of hesitation, he started forward alone.
+
+We scarcely believed our eyes.
+
+By and by he came back again, but to us he said nothing. He went into the
+cabin, and when next we saw him Captain Falk was by his side.
+
+"I don't like the looks of it," Kipping was saying, "I don't at all."
+
+As the captain passed me he called, "Lathrop, go to the galley and get a
+bucket of hot water."
+
+Running to the deck-house, I thrust my head into the galley and made known
+my want with so little ceremony that the cook was exasperated. Or so at
+least his manner intimated.
+
+"You boy," he roared in a voice that easily carried to where the others
+stood and grinned at my discomfiture, "you boy, what foh you come
+promulgatin' in on me with 'gimme dis' and 'gimme dat' like Ah wahn't ol'
+enough to be yo' pa? Ain't you got no manners nohow? You vex me, yass, sah,
+you vex me. If we gotta have a boy on boa'd ship, why don' dey keep him out
+of de galley?"
+
+Then with a change of voice that startled me, he demanded in an undertone
+that must have been inaudible a dozen feet away, "Have things broke? Is de
+fight on? Has de row started?"
+
+Bewildered, I replied, "Why, no--it's only Bill Hayden."
+
+Instantly he resumed his loud and abusive tone. "Well, if dey gwine send a
+boy heah foh wateh, wateh he's gotta have. Heah, you wuthless boy, git! Git
+out of heah!"
+
+Filling a bucket with boiling water, he thrust it into my hand and shoved
+me half across the deck so roughly that I narrowly escaped scalding myself,
+then returned to his work, muttering imprecations on the whole race of
+boys. He was too much of a strategist for me.
+
+When I took the bucket to the forecastle, I found the captain and Mr.
+Kipping looking at poor old Bill.
+
+"Dip a cloth in the water," the captain said carelessly, "and pull his
+clothes off and lay the cloth on where it hurts."
+
+I obeyed as well as I could, letting the cloth cool a bit first; and
+although Bill cried out sharply when it touched his skin, the heat eased
+him of pain, and by and by he opened his eyes for all the world as if he
+had been asleep and looked at Captain Falk and said in a scared voice, "In
+heaven's name, what's happened?"
+
+The captain and Mr. Kipping laughed coldly. It seemed to me that they
+didn't care whether he lived or died.
+
+Certainly the men of the larboard watch, who were lying in their bunks at
+the time, didn't like the way the two behaved. I caught the word
+"heartless" twice repeated.
+
+"Well," said Captain Falk at last, "either he'll live or he'll not. How
+about it, Mr. Kipping?"
+
+The mate laughed as if he had heard a good joke. "That's one of the truest
+things ever was said aboard a ship," he replied, in his slow, insincere
+way. "Yes, sir, it hits the nail on the head going up and coming down."
+
+"Well, then, let's leave him to make up his mind."
+
+So the two went aft together as if they had done a good day's work. But
+there was a buzz of disapproval in the forecastle when they had gone, and
+one of the men from Boston, of whom I hitherto had had a very poor opinion,
+actually got out of his blankets and came over to help me minister to poor
+Bill's needs.
+
+"It ain't right," he said dipping the cloth in the hot water; "they never
+so much as gave him a dose of medicine. A man may be only a sailor, but
+he's worth a dose of medicine. There never come no good of denying poor
+Jack his pill when he's sick."
+
+"Ay, heartless!" one of the others exclaimed. _"I could tell things if I
+would."_
+
+That remark, I ask you to remember. The man who made it, the other of the
+two from Boston, had black hair and a black beard, and a nose that
+protruded in a big hook where he had broken it years before. It was easy to
+recognize his profile a long way off because of the peculiar shape of the
+nose. The remark itself is of little importance, of course; but a story is
+made up of things that seem to be of little importance, yet really are more
+significant by far than matters that for the moment are startling.
+
+It was touching to see the solicitude of the men and the clumsy kindness of
+their efforts to help poor Bill when the captain and the mate had left him.
+They crowded up to his bunk and smoothed out his blankets and spoke to him
+more gently than I should have believed possible. So angry were they at the
+brutality of the two officers, that the coldest and hardest of them all
+gave the sick man a muttered word of sympathy or an awkward helping hand.
+
+We worked over him, easing him as best we could, while the bell struck the
+half hours and the hours; and for a while he seemed more comfortable. In a
+moment of sanity he looked up at me with a sad smile and said, "I wish,
+lad, I surely wish I could do something for _you_." But long before the
+watch was over he once more began to talk about the tiny wee girl at
+Newburyport--"Cute she is as they make 'em," he reiterated weakly,
+"a-waiting for her dad to come home." And by and by he spoke of his wife,
+--"a good wife," he called her,--and then he made a little noise in his
+throat and lay for a long time without moving.
+
+"He's dead," the man from Boston said at last; there was no sound in the
+forecastle except the rattle of the swinging lantern and the chug-chug of
+waves.
+
+I was younger than the others and more sensitive, so I went on deck and
+leaned on the bulwark, looking at the ocean and seeing nothing.
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+IN WHICH THE TIDE OF OUR FORTUNES EBBS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MR. FALK TRIES TO COVER HIS TRACKS
+
+
+How long I leaned on the bulwark I do not know; I had no sense of passing
+time. But after a while some one told me that the captain wished to see me
+in the cabin, and I went aft with other tragic memories in mind. I had not
+entered the cabin since Captain Whidden died--"_shot f'om behine_." The
+negro's phrase now flashed upon my memory and rang over and over again in
+my ears.
+
+The cabin itself was much as it had been that other day: I suppose no
+article of its furnishings had been changed. But when I saw Captain Falk in
+the place of Captain Whidden and Kipping in the place of Mr. Thomas, I felt
+sick at heart. All that encouraged me was the sight of Roger Hamlin, and I
+suspected that he attended uninvited, for he came into the cabin from his
+stateroom at the same moment when I came down the companionway, and there
+was no twinkle now in his steady eyes.
+
+Captain Falk glanced at him sharply. "Well, sir?" he exclaimed testily.
+
+"I have decided to join you, sir," Roger said, and calmly seated himself.
+
+For a moment Falk hesitated, then, obviously unwilling, he assented with a
+grimace.
+
+"Lathrop," he said, turning to me, "you were present when Hayden died, and
+also you had helped care for him previously. Mr. Kipping has written a
+statement of the circumstances in the log and you are to sign it, Here's
+the place for your name. Here's a pen and ink. Be careful not to blot or
+smudge it."
+
+He pushed the big, canvas-covered book over to me and placed his finger on
+a vacant line. All that preceded it was covered with paper.
+
+"Of course," said Roger, coldly, "Lathrop will read the statement before
+signing it." He was looking the captain squarely in the eye.
+
+Falk scowled as he replied, "I consider that quite unnecessary."
+
+"A great many of the ordinary decencies of life seem to be considered
+unnecessary aboard this ship."
+
+"If you are making any insinuations at me, Mr. Hamlin, I'll show you who's
+captain here."
+
+"You needn't. You've done it sufficiently already. Anyhow, if Lathrop were
+foolish enough to sign the statement without reading it, I should know that
+he hadn't read it and I assure you that it wouldn't pass muster in any
+court of law."
+
+As Captain Falk was about to retort even more angrily, Kipping touched his
+arm and whispered to him.
+
+"Oh, well," he said with ill grace, "as you wish, Mr. Kipping. There's
+nothing underhanded about this. Of course the account is absolutely true
+and the whole world could read it; only I don't intend a silly young fop
+shall think he can bully me on my own ship. Show Lathrop the statement."
+
+Kipping withdrew the paper and I began to read what was written in the log,
+but Roger now interrupted again.
+
+"Read it aloud," he said.
+
+"What in heaven's name do you think you are, you young fool? If you think
+you can bully Nathan Falk like that, I'll lash you to skin and pulp."
+
+"Oh, well," said Roger comically, in imitation of the captain's own air of
+concession, "since you feel so warmly on the subject, I'm quite willing to
+yield the point. It's enough that Lathrop should read it before he signs."
+Then, turning to me suddenly, he cried, "Ben, what's the course according
+to the log?"
+
+The angry red of Captain Talk's face deepened, but before he could speak, I
+had seen and repeated it:--
+
+"Northeast by north."
+
+Roger smiled. "Go on," he said. "Read the statement."
+
+The statement was straightforward enough for the most part--more
+straightforward, it seemed to me, than either of the two men who probably
+had collaborated in writing it; but one sentence caught my attention and I
+hesitated.
+
+"Well," said Roger who was watching me closely, "is anything wrong?"
+
+"Why, perhaps not exactly wrong," I replied, "though I do think most of the
+men forward would deny it."
+
+"See here," cried Captain Falk, cutting off Kipping, who tried to speak at
+the same moment, "I tell you, Mr. Hamlin, if you thrust your oar in here
+again I'll thrash you within an inch of your life! I'll keelhaul you, so
+help me! I'll--" He wrinkled up his nose and twisted his lips into a sneer
+before he added, almost in a whisper, "I'll do worse than that."
+
+"No," said Roger calmly, "I don't think you will. What's the sentence,
+Benny?"
+
+Without waiting for another word from anyone I read aloud as follows:--
+
+"'And the captain and the chief mate tended Hayden carefully and did what
+they might to make his last hours comfortable.'"
+
+"Well," said Falk, "didn't we?"
+
+"No, by heaven, you didn't," Roger cried suddenly, taking the floor from
+me. "I know how you beat Hayden. I know how you two drove him to throw
+himself overboard. You're a precious pair! And what's more, all the men
+forward know it. While we're about it, Captain Falk, here's something else
+I know. According to the log, which you consistently have refused to let me
+see the course is northeast by north. According to the men at the wheel,--I
+will not be still! I will not close my mouth! If you assault me, sir, I
+will break your shallow head,--according to the men at the wheel, of whom I
+have inquired, according to the ship's compass when I've taken a chance to
+look at it, according to the tell-tale that you yourself can see at this
+very minute and--" Roger laid on the table a little box of hard wood bound
+with brass--"according to this compass of my own, which I know is a good
+one, our course is now and has been for two days east-northeast. Captain
+Falk, do you think you can make us believe that Manila is Canton?"
+
+"It may be that I do, and it may be that I do not," Falk retorted hotly.
+"As for you, Mr. Hamlin, I'll attend to your case later. Now sign that
+statement, Lathrop."
+
+Falk was standing. His hands, a moment before lifted for a blow, rested on
+the table; but the knuckles were streaked with red along the creases, and
+the nails of his fingers, which were bent under, he had pressed hard
+against the dull mahogany. When he had finished speaking, he sat down
+heavily.
+
+"Sign it, Ben," said Roger; "but first draw your pen through that
+particular sentence."
+
+Quick as thought I did what Roger told me, leaving a single broad line
+through the words "and did what they might to make his last hours
+comfortable"; then I wrote my name and laid the pen on the table.
+
+[Illustration: "Sign that statement, Lathrop," said Captain Falk.]
+
+Leaning over to see what I had done, Falk leaped up white with passion.
+"Good God!" he yelled, "that's worse than nothing."
+
+"Yes," said Roger coolly, "I think it is."
+
+"What--" Falk stopped suddenly. Kipping had touched his sleeve. "Well?"
+
+Kipping whispered to him.
+
+"No," Falk snarled, glancing at me, "I'm going to take that young pup's
+hide off his back and salt it."
+
+Again Kipping whispered to him.
+
+This time he seemed half persuaded. He was a weak man, even in his
+passions. "All right," he said, after reflecting briefly. "As you say, it
+don't make so much odds. Myself, I'm for slitting the young pup's ears--but
+later on, later on. And though I'd like to straighten out the record as far
+as it goes--Well, as you say."
+
+For all of Captain Falk's bluster and pretension, I was becoming more and
+more aware that the subtle Kipping could twist him around his little
+finger, and that for some end of his own Kipping did not wish affairs to
+come yet to a head.
+
+He leaned back in his chair, twirling his thumbs behind his interlocked
+fingers, and smiled at us mildly. His whole bearing was odious. He fairly
+exhaled hypocrisy. I remembered a dozen episodes of his career aboard the
+Island Princess--the wink he had given Captain Falk, then second mate; his
+coming to the cook's galley for part of my pie; his bullying poor old Bill
+Hayden; his cold selfishness in taking the best meat from the kids, and
+many other offensive incidents. Was it possible that Captain Falk was not
+at the bottom of all our troubles? that Captain Falk had been from the
+first only somebody's tool?
+
+We left the cabin in single file, the captain first, Kipping second, then
+Roger, then I.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A PRAYER FOR THE DEAD
+
+
+In the last few hours we had sighted an island, which lay now off the
+starboard bow; and as I had had no opportunity hitherto to observe it
+closely, I regarded it with much interest when I came on deck. Inland there
+were several cone-shaped mountains thickly wooded about the base; to the
+south the shore was low and apparently marshy; to the north a bold and
+rugged promontory extended. Along the shore and for some distance beyond it
+there were open spaces that might have been great tracts of cleared land;
+and a report prevailed among the men that a fishing boat had been sighted
+far off, which seemed to put back incontinently to the shore. Otherwise
+there was no sign of human habitation, but we knew the character of the
+natives of such islands thereabouts too well to approach land with any
+sense of security.
+
+Captain Falk and Kipping were deep in consultation, and the rest were
+intent upon the sad duty that awaited us. On the deck there lay now a shape
+sewed in canvas. The men, glancing occasionally at the captain, stood a
+little way off, bare-headed and ill at ease, and conversed in whispers. For
+the moment I had forgotten that we were to do honor for the last time--and,
+I fear me, for the first--to poor Bill Hayden. Poor, stupid Bill! He had
+meant so well by us all, and life had dealt so hardly with him! Even in
+death he was neglected.
+
+As time passed, the island became gradually clearer, so that now we could
+see its mountains more distinctly and pick out each separate peak. Although
+the wind was light and unsteady, we were making fair progress; but Captain
+Falk and Mr. Kipping remained intent on their conference.
+
+I could see that Roger Hamlin, who was leaning on the taffrail, was
+imperturbable; but Davie Paine grew nervous and walked back and forth,
+looking now and then at the still shape in canvas, and the men began to
+murmur among themselves.
+
+"Well," said the captain at last, "what does all this mean, Mr. Paine? What
+in thunder do you mean by letting the men stand around like this?"
+
+He knew well enough what it meant, though, for all his bluster. If he had
+not, he would have been ranting up the deck the instant he laid eyes on
+that scene of idleness such as no competent officer could countenance.
+
+Old Davie, who was as confused as the captain had intended that he should
+be, stammered a while and finally managed to say, "If you please, sir, Bill
+Hayden's dead."
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "it looks like he's dead."
+
+We all heard him and more than one of us breathed hard with anger.
+
+"Well, why don't you heave him over and be done with it?" he asked shortly,
+and turned away.
+
+
+The men exchanged glances.
+
+
+"If you please, sir,--" it was Davie, and a different Davie from the one we
+had known before,--"if you please, sir, ain't you goin' to read the service
+and say the words?"
+
+I turned and stared at Davie in amazement. His voice was sharper now than
+ever I had heard it and there was a challenge in his eyes as well.
+
+"What?" Falk snapped out angrily.
+
+"Ain't you goin' to read the Bible and say the words, sir?"
+
+I am convinced that up to this point Captain Falk had intended, after
+badgering Davie enough to suit his own unkind humor, to read the service
+with all the solemnity that the occasion demanded. He was too eager for
+every prerogative of his office to think of doing otherwise. But his was
+the way of a weak man; at Davie's challenge he instantly made up his mind
+not to do what was desired, and having set himself on record thus, his
+mulish obstinacy held him to his decision in spite of whatever better
+judgment he may have had.
+
+"Not I!" he cried. "Toss him over to suit yourself."
+
+When an angry murmur rose on every side, he faced about again. "Well," he
+said, "what do you want, anyway? I'm captain here, and if you wish I'll
+_show_ you I'm captain here. I'll read the service or I'll not read it,
+just as I please. If any man here's got anything to say about it, I'll do
+some saying myself. If any man here wants to read the service over that
+lump of clay, let him read it." Then, turning with an air of indifference,
+he leaned on the rail with a sneer, and smiled at Kipping.
+
+What would have happened next I do not know, so angry were the men at this
+wretched exhibition on the part of the captain, if Roger had not stepped
+forward.
+
+"Very well, sir," he said facing the captain, "since you put it that way,
+_I'll read the service_." And without ceremony he took from the captain's
+hand the prayer-book that Falk had brought on deck.
+
+Disconcerted by this unexpected act and angered by the murmur of approval
+from the men, Falk started to speak, then thought better of it and sidled
+over beside Kipping, to whom he whispered something at which they both
+laughed heartily. Then they stood smiling scornfully while Roger went down
+beside poor Bill's body.
+
+Roger opened the prayer-book, turned the pages deliberately, and began to
+read the service slowly and with feeling. He was younger and more slender
+than many of the men, but straight and tall and handsome, and I remember
+how proud of him I felt for taking affairs in his own hands and making the
+best of a bad situation.
+
+"We therefore commit his body to the deep," he read "looking for the
+general Resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come,
+through our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose second coming in glorious majesty
+to judge the world, the sea shall give up her dead; and the corruptible
+bodies of those who sleep in Him shall be changed and made like unto his
+glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue
+all things unto Himself."
+
+Then Blodgett, Davie Paine, the cook, and the man from Boston lifted the
+plank and inclined it over the bulwark, and so passed all that was mortal
+of poor Bill Hayden.
+
+Suddenly, in the absolute silence that ensued when Roger closed the
+prayer-book, I became aware that he was signaling me to come nearer, and I
+stepped over beside him. At the same instant the reason for it burst upon
+me. Now, if ever, was the time to turn against Captain Falk.
+
+"Men," said Roger in a low voice, "are you going to stand by without
+lifting a hand and see a shipmate's dead body insulted?"
+
+The crew came together in a close group about their supercargo. With stern
+faces and with the heavy breathing of men who contemplate some rash or
+daring deed, they were, I could see, intent on what Roger had to say.
+
+He looked from one to another of them as if to appraise their spirit and
+determination. "I represent the owners," he continued tersely. "The owners'
+orders are not being obeyed. Mind what I tell you--_the owners' orders are
+not being obeyed._ You know why as well as I do, and you remember this:
+though it may seem on the face of it that I advocate mutiny or even piracy,
+if we take the ship from the present captain and carry out the voyage and
+obey the owners' orders, I can promise you that there'll be a fine rich
+reward waiting at Salem for every man here. What's more, it'll be an honest
+reward, with credit from the owners and all law-abiding men. But enough of
+that! It's a matter of ordinary decency--of common honesty! The man who
+will conspire against the owners of this ship is a contemptible cur, a fit
+shipmate with the brute who horsed poor Bill to death."
+
+I never had lacked faith in Roger, but never before had I appreciated to
+the full his reckless courage and his unyielding sense of personal honor.
+
+He paused and again glanced from face to face. "What say, men? Are you with
+me?" he cried, raising his voice.
+
+Meanwhile Captain Falk, aware that something was going on forward, shouted
+angrily, "Here, here! What's all this! Come, lay to your work, you sons of
+perdition, or I'll show you what's what. You, Blodgett, go forward and
+heave that lead as you were told."
+
+In his hand Blodgett held the seven-pound dipsey lead, but he stood his
+ground.
+
+"Well?" Falk came down on us like a whirlwind. "Well? You, Hamlin, what in
+Tophet are you backing and hauling about?"
+
+"I? Backing and hauling?" Roger spoke as calmly as you please. "I am merely
+advocating that the men take charge of the ship in the name of the lawful
+owners and according to their orders."
+
+As Captain Falk sprang forward to strike him down, there came a thin, windy
+cry, "No you don't; no, you don't!"
+
+To my amazement I saw that it was old Blodgett.
+
+"It don't do to insult the dead," he cried in a voice like the yowl of a
+tom-cat. "You can kill us all you like. It's captain's rights. But, by the
+holy, you ain't got no rights whatsoever to refuse a poor sailor a decent
+burial."
+
+With a vile oath, Captain Falk contemplated this new factor in the
+situation. Suddenly he yelled, "Kipping! It's mutiny! Help!" And with a
+clutch at his hip he drew his pistol.
+
+"'Heave the lead' is it?" Blodgett muttered. "Ay, I'll heave the lead." He
+whipped up his arm and hurled the missile straight at Captain Falk's head.
+
+The captain dodged, but the lead struck his shoulder and felled him.
+
+Seeing Kipping coming silently with a pistol in each hand, I ducked and
+tried to pull Roger over beside Blodgett; but Roger, instantly aware of
+Kipping's move, spun on his heel as the first bullet flew harmlessly past
+us, and lithely stepped aside. With a single swing of his right arm he cut
+Kipping across the face with a rope's end and stopped him dead.
+
+As the welt reddened on his face, Kipping staggered, leveled his other
+pistol point-blank and pulled the trigger.
+
+For the moment I could not draw breath, but the pistol missed fire.
+
+"Flashed in the pan!" Roger cried, and tugged at his own pistol, which had
+caught inside his shirt where he had carried it out of sight. "That's not
+all--that's flashed in the pan!"
+
+"Now then, you fools," Kipping shrieked. "Go for 'em! Go for'em! The bell's
+struck! Now's the time!"
+
+So far it all had happened so suddenly and so extraordinarily swiftly, with
+one event fairly leaping at the heels of another, that the men were
+completely dazed.
+
+Captain Falk sat on the deck with his hand pressed against his injured
+shoulder and with his pistol lying beside him where he had dropped it when
+he fell. Kipping, the red bruise showing across his face, confronted us
+with one pistol smoking, the other raised; Blodgett, having thrown the
+lead, was drawing his knife from the sheath; Roger was pulling desperately
+at his own pistol; and for my part I was in a state of such complete
+confusion that to this day I don't know what I did or said. In the moments
+that followed we were to learn once and for all the allegiance of every man
+aboard the Island Princess.
+
+One of the men from Boston, evidently picking me out as the least
+formidable of the trio, shot a quick glance back at Kipping as if to be
+sure of his approval, and springing at me, knocked me flat on my back. I
+felt sure he was going to kill me when he reached for my throat. But I
+heard behind me a thunderous roar, "Heah Ah is! Heah Ah is!" And out of the
+corner of my eye I saw the cook, the meat-cleaver in his hand, leaping to
+my rescue, with Roger, one hand still inside his shirt, scarcely a foot
+behind him.
+
+The man from Boston scrambled off me and fled.
+
+"Ah's with you-all foh one," the cook cried, swinging his cleaver. "Ah
+ain't gwine see no po' sailor man done to death and me not say 'What foh!'"
+
+"You fool! You black fool!" Chips shrieked, shaking his fist, "Stand by and
+share up! Stand by and share up!"
+
+
+Neddie Benson jumped over beside the cook. "Me too!" he called shrilly.
+"Bad luck or good luck, old Bill he done his best and was fair murdered."
+
+Poor Bill! His martyrdom stood us in good stead in our hour of need.
+
+On the other side of the deck there was a lively struggle from which came
+fierce yells as each man sought to persuade his friends to his own way of
+thinking:
+
+"Stand by, lads, stand by--"
+
+"----the bloody money!--"
+
+"Hanged for mutiny--"
+
+"I know where my bed's made soft--"
+
+The greater part of the men, it seemed, were lining up behind Kipping and
+Captain Falk, when a scornful shout rose and I was aware that some one else
+had come over to our side. It was old Davie Paine. "He didn't ought to
+shame me in front of all the men," Davie muttered. "No, sir, it wa'n't
+right. And what's more, there's lots o' things aboard this ship that ain't
+as they should be. I may be poor and ignorant and no shakes of a scholar,
+but I ain't goin' to put up with 'em."
+
+So we six faced the other twelve with as good grace as we could
+muster,--Roger, the cook, Blodgett, Neddie Benson, Davie, and I,--and there
+was a long silence. But Roger had got out his pistol now, and the lull in
+the storm was ominous.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+MAROONED
+
+
+That it was important to control the after part of the ship, I was well
+aware, and though we were outnumbered two to one, I hoped that by good
+fortune we might win it.
+
+I was not long in doubt of Roger's sharing my hope. He analyzed our
+opponents' position at a single glance, and ignoring their advantage in
+numbers, seized upon the only chance of taking them by surprise. Swinging
+his arm and crying, "Come, men! All for the cabin!" he flung himself
+headlong at Falk. I followed close at his heels--I was afraid to be left
+behind. I heard the cook grunt hoarsely as he apprehended the situation and
+sprang after us. Then the others met us with knives and pistols.
+
+Our attack was futile and soon over, but while it lasted there was a merry
+little fight. As a man slashed at Roger with a case-knife, laying open a
+long gash in his cheek, Roger fired a shot from his pistol, and the fellow
+pitched forward and lay still except for his limbs, which twitched
+sickeningly. For my own part, seeing another who had run aft for a weapon
+swing at me with a cutlass, I threw myself under his guard and got my arms
+round both his knees. As something crashed above me, I threw the fellow
+back and discovered that the cook had met the cutlass in full swing with
+the cleaver and had shattered it completely. Barely in time to escape a
+murderous blow that the carpenter aimed at me with his hammer, I scrambled
+to my feet and leaped back beside Roger, who held his cheek with his hand.
+
+I believe it was the cook's cleaver that saved our lives for the time
+being. Falk and Kipping had fired the charges in their pistols, and no one
+was willing to venture within reach of the black's long arm and brutal
+weapon. So, having spent our own last charge of powder, we backed away into
+the bow with our faces to the enemy, and the only sounds to be heard were
+flapping sails and rattling blocks, the groans of the poor fellow Roger had
+shot, and the click of a powder-flask as Falk reloaded and passed his
+ammunition to Kipping.
+
+"So," said Falk at last, "we have a fine little mutiny brewing, have we?"
+He looked first at us, then at those who remained true to him and his
+schemes. "Well, Mr. Kipping, with the help of Chips here, we can make out
+to work the ship at a pinch. Yes, I think we can dispense with these young
+cocks altogether. Yes,--" he raised his voice and swore roundly--"yes, we
+can follow our own gait and fare a damned sight better without them. We'll
+let them have a boat and row back to Salem. A voyage of a few thousand
+miles at the oars will be a rare good thing to tone down a pair of young
+fighting cocks." Then he added, smiling, "If they meet with no Ladronesers
+or Malays to clip their spurs."
+
+Captain Falk looked at Kipping and his men, and they all laughed.
+
+"Ay, so it will," cried Kipping. "And old Davie Paine 'll never have a
+mister to his name again. You old lubber, you, your bones will be rotting
+at the bottom of the sea when we're dividing up the gold."
+
+Again the men laughed loudly.
+
+Davie flushed and stammered, but Blodgett spoke out bitterly.
+
+"So they will, before you or Captain Falk divide with any of the rest. Ah!
+Red in the face, are ye? That shot told. Davie 'd rather take his chances
+with a gentleman than be second mate under either one o' you two. He may
+not know when he's well off, but he knows well when he ain't."
+
+For all Blodgett spoke so boldly, I could see that Davie in his own heart
+was still afraid of Kipping. But Kipping merely smiled in his mean way and
+slowly looked us over.
+
+"If we was to walk them over a plank," he suggested, deferentially, to the
+captain, "there would be an end to all bother with them."
+
+"No," said Falk, "give them a boat. It's all the same in the long run, and
+I ain't got the stomach to watch six of them drown one after another."
+
+Kipping raised his eyebrows at such weakness; then a new thought seemed to
+dawn on him. His accursed smile grew broader and he began to laugh softly.
+For the moment I could not imagine what he was laughing at, but his next
+words answered my unspoken question. "Ha ha ha! Right you are, captain!
+Just think of 'em, a-sailing home in a ship's boat! Oh, won't they have a
+pretty time?"
+
+The predicament of six fellow men set adrift in an open boat pleased the
+man's vile humor. We knew that he believed he was sending us to certain
+death, and that he delighted in it.
+
+"This fine talk is all very well," said Roger, "and I've no doubt you think
+yourselves very witty, but let that be as it may. As matters stand now,
+you've got the upper hand--though I wish you joy of working the ship.
+However, if you give us the long-boat and a fair allowance of water and
+bread, we'll ask nothing more."
+
+"Ah," said Falk, with a leer at Kipping who was smiling quietly, "the
+long-boat and a fair allowance of water and bread! Ay, next they'll be
+wanting us to set 'em up in their own ship." He changed suddenly from a
+leer to a snarl. "You'll take what I give you and nothing more nor less.
+Now then, men, we'll just herd these hearties overboard and bid them a gay
+farewell."
+
+He stood there, pointing the way with a grand gesture and the late
+afternoon sun sparkled on the buttons of his coat and shone brightly on the
+fine white shirt he wore, which in better days had belonged to Captain
+Whidden. "Murderer and thief!" I thought. For although about Captain
+Whidden's death I knew nothing more than the cook's never-to-be-forgotten
+words, "a little roun' hole in the back of his head--he was shot f'om
+behine," I laid Bill Hayden's death at Captain Falk's door, and I knew well
+by now that our worthy skipper would not scruple at stealing more than
+shirts.
+
+When Falk pointed to the quarter-boat, the men, laughing harshly, closed in
+on us and drove us along by threatening us with pistols and pikes, which
+the bustling steward by now had distributed. And all the while Kipping
+stood just behind the captain, smiling as if no unkind thought had ever
+ruffled his placid nature. I could not help but be aware of his meanness,
+and I suppose it was because I was only a boy and not given to looking
+under the surface that I did not yet completely recognize in him the real
+leader of all that had gone astray aboard the Island Princess.
+
+We let ourselves be driven toward the boat. Since we were outnumbered now
+eleven to six,--not counting the wounded man of course,--and since,
+compared with the others, we were virtually unarmed, we ought, I suppose,
+to have been thankful that we were not murdered in cold blood, as doubtless
+we should have been if our dangerous plight had not so delighted Kipping's
+cruel humor, and if both Falk and Kipping had not felt certain that they
+would never see or hear of us again. But we found little comfort in
+realizing that, as matters stood, although in our own minds we were
+convinced absolutely that Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping had conspired with
+the crew to rob the owners, by the cold light of fact we could be proved in
+the wrong in any court of admiralty.
+
+So far as Roger and I were concerned, our belief was based after all
+chiefly on supposition; and so craftily had the whole scheme been phrased
+and manoeuvred that, if you got down to categorical testimony, even
+Blodgett and Davie Paine would have been hard put to it to prove anything
+culpable against the other party. Actually we were guilty of mutiny, if
+nothing more.
+
+The cook still carried his great cleaver and Blodgett unobtrusively had
+drawn and opened a big dirk knife; but Neddie Benson, Davie, and I had no
+weapons of any kind, and Roger's pistol was empty.
+
+We worked the boat outboard in silence and made no further resistance,
+though I knew from Roger's expression as he watched Falk and Kipping and
+their men, that, if he had seen a fair chance to turn the scales in our
+favor, he would have seized it at any cost.
+
+Meanwhile the sails were flapping so loudly that it was hard to hear
+Roger's voice when he again said, "Surely you'll give us food and water."
+
+"Why--no," said Falk. "I don't think you'll need it. You won't want to row
+right home without stopping to say how-d'y'-do to the natives."
+
+Again a roar of laughter came from the men on deck.
+
+As the boat lay under the side of the ship, they crowded to the rail and
+stared down at us with all sorts of rough gibes at our expense.
+Particularly they aimed then-taunts at Davie Paine and Blodgett, who a
+short time before had been hand-in-glove with them; and I was no little
+relieved to see that their words seemed only to confirm the two in their
+determination, come what might, never to join forces again with Falk and
+Kipping. But Kipping singled out the cook and berated him with a stream of
+disgusting oaths.
+
+"You crawling black nigger, you," he yelled. "Now what'll _you_ give _me_
+for a piece of pie?"
+
+Holding the cleaver close at his side, the negro looked up at the fox who
+was abusing him, and burst into wild vituperation. Although Kipping only
+laughed in reply, there was a savage and intense vindictiveness in the
+negro's impassioned jargon that chilled my blood. I remember thinking then
+that I should dread being in Kipping's shoes if ever those two met again.
+
+As we cast off, we six in that little boat soon to be left alone in the
+wastes of the China Sea, we looked up at the cold, laughing faces on which
+the low sun shone with an orange-yellow light, and saw in them neither pity
+nor mercy. The hands resting on the bulwark, the hands of our own
+shipmates, were turned against us.
+
+The ship was coming back to her course now, and some of us were looking at
+the distant island with the cone-shaped peaks, toward which by common
+consent we had turned our bow, when the cook, who still stared back at
+Kipping, seemed to get a new view of his features. Springing up suddenly,
+he yelled in a great voice that must have carried far across the sea:--
+
+"You Kipping, Ah got you--Ah got you--Ah knows who you is--Ah knows who you
+is--you crimp's runner, you! You blood-money sucker, you! Ah seen you in
+Boston! Ah seen you befo' now! A-a-a-ah!--a-a-a-ah!" And he shook his great
+black fist at the mate.
+
+The smile on Kipping's face was swept away by a look of consternation. With
+a quick motion he raised his loaded pistol, which he had primed anew, and
+fired on us; then, snatching another from one of the crew, he fired again,
+and stood with the smoking weapons, one in each hand, and a snarl fixed on
+his face.
+
+Captain Falk was staring at the negro in wrath and amazement, and there was
+a stir on the deck that aroused my strong curiosity. But the cook was
+groaning so loudly that we could hear no word of what was said, so we bent
+to the oars with all our strength and rowed out of range toward the distant
+island.
+
+Kipping's second ball had grazed the negro's head and had left a deep
+furrow from which blood was running freely. But for the thickness of his
+skull I believe it would have killed him.
+
+Once again the sails of the Island Princess, as we watched her, filled with
+wind and she bore away across the sapphire blue of the sea with all her
+canvas spread, as beautiful a sight as I have ever seen. The changing
+lights in the sky painted the water with opalescent colors and tinted the
+sails gold and crimson and purple, and by and by, when the sun had set and
+the stars had come out and the ocean had darkened, we still could make her
+out, smaller and ghostlike in the distance, sailing away before light winds
+with the money and goods all under her hatches.
+
+Laboring at the oars, we rowed on and on and on. Stars, by which we now
+held our course, grew bright overhead, and after a time we again saw dimly
+the shores of the island. We dared not stay at sea in a small open boat
+without food or water, and the island was our only refuge.
+
+Presently we heard breakers and saw once more the bluff headlands that we
+had seen from the deck of the Island Princess. Remembering that there had
+been low shores farther south, we rowed on and on, interminably and at
+last, faint and weary, felt the keel of the boat grate on a muddy beach.
+
+At all events we had come safely to land.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ADVENTURES ASHORE
+
+
+As we rested on our oars by the strange island, and smelled the warm odor
+of the marsh and the fragrance of unseen flowers, and listened to the
+_wheekle_ of a night-hawk that circled above us, we talked of one thing and
+another, chiefly of the men aboard the Island Princess and how glad we were
+to be done with them forever.
+
+"Ay," said Davie Paine sadly, "never again 'll I have the handle before my
+name. But what of that? It's a deal sight jollier in the fo'castle than in
+the cabin and I ain't the scholar to be an officer." He sighed heavily.
+
+"It warn't so jolly this voyage," Neddie Benson muttered, "what with Bill
+Hayden passing on, like he done."
+
+We were silent for a time. For my own part, I was thinking about old Bill's
+"little wee girl at Newbury-port" waiting for her stupid old dad to come
+back to her, and I have an idea that the others were thinking much the same
+thoughts. But soon Blodgett stirred restlessly, and the cook, the cleaver
+on his knees, cleared his throat and after a premonitory grunt or two began
+to speak.
+
+"Boy, he think Ah ain't got no use foh boys," he chuckled. "Hee-ha ha! Ah
+fool 'em. Stew'd, he say, 'Frank, am you with us o' without us?' He say,
+'Am you gwine like one ol' lobscozzle idjut git cook's pay all yo' life?'
+
+"'Well,' Ah says, 'what pay you think Ah'm gwine fob to git? Cap'n's pay,
+maybe? 0' gin'ral's pay? Yass, sah. Ef Ah'm cook Ah'm gwine git cook's
+pay.'
+
+"Den he laff hearty and slap his knee and he say 'Ef you come in with us,
+you won't git cook's pay, no' sah. You is gwine git pay like no admiral
+don't git if you come in with us. Dah's money 'board dis yeh ol'
+ship.'
+
+"'Yass, sah,' says I, suspicionin' su'thin' was like what it didn't had
+ought to be. 'But dat's owner's money.'
+
+"Den stew'd, he say, 'Listen! You come in with me and Cap'n Falk and Mistah
+Kipping, and we's gwine split dat yeh money all up'twix' one another. Yass,
+sah! But you all gotta have nothin' to do with dat yeh Mistah Hamlin and
+dat yeh cocky li'le Ben Lathrop.'
+
+"'Oh no,' Ah says inside, so stew'd he don't heah me. 'Guess you all don't
+know me and dat yeh Ben Lathrop is friends.'
+
+"Den Ah stop sudden. 'Mah golly,' Ah think, 'dey's a conspiration a-foot,
+yass, sah, and if dis yeh ol' nigger don't look out dey gwine hu't de boy.'
+If Ah gits into dat yeh conspiration, den Ah guess Ah'll snoop roun' and
+learn what Ah didn't had ought to, and when time come, den mah golly, Ah'll
+took good keer of dat boy. So Ah done like Ah'm sayin' now, and Ah says to
+stew'd, 'Yass, sah, yass, sah,' and Ah don't let boy come neah de galley
+and Ah don't give him no pie nor cake, but when time come Ah take good keer
+of him, and Ah's tellin' you, Ah knows a lot 'bout what dem crawlin'
+critters yonder on ship think dey gwine foh to do."
+
+With a glance toward me in the darkness that I verily believe expressed as
+much genuine affection as so villainous a black countenance could show,
+Frank got out his rank pipe and began packing it full of tobacco.
+
+Here was further evidence of what we so long had suspected. But as I
+reflected on it, with forgiveness in my heart for every snub the faithful,
+crafty old darky had given me and with amusement at the simple way he had
+tricked the steward and Falk and Kipping, I recalled his parting remarks to
+our worthy mate.
+
+"What was that you said to Mr. Kipping just as we gave way this afternoon?"
+I asked.
+
+"Hey, what dat?" Frank growled.
+
+"When had you seen Kipping before?"
+
+There was a long silence, then Frank spoke quietly and yet with obvious
+feeling. "Ah got a bone to pick with Kipping," he said, "but dat yeh's a
+matter 'twix' him and me."
+
+All this time Roger had watched and listened with a kindly smile.
+
+"Well, men," he now said, "we've had a chance to rest and get our wind.
+It's time we set to work. What do you say, hadn't we better haul the boat
+out?"
+
+Although we tacitly had accepted Roger as commander of our expedition, he
+spoke always with a certain deference to the greater age and experience of
+Blodgett and Davie Paine, which won them so completely that they would have
+followed him anywhere.
+
+They both looked at the sky and at the darkly rolling sea on which there
+now rested a low incoming mist; but Davie left the burden of reply to old
+Blodgett, who spoke nervously in his thin, windy voice.
+
+"Ay, sir, that we had. There's not much wind, nor is there, I think, likely
+to be much; but if we was to haul up into some bushes like those yonder,
+there won't be a thousand savages scouring the coast, come daylight,
+a-hunting for the men that came in the boat."
+
+That was sound common sense.
+
+We got out and, standing three on a side, hauled the boat by great effort
+clean out of water. Then we bent ropes to each end of three thwarts, and
+thrust an oar through the bights of each pair of ropes. Thus, with one of
+us at each end of an oar, holding it in the crooks of his elbows, we made
+out to lift the boat and drag it along till we got it safely hidden in the
+bushes with the oars tucked away under it. We then smoothed out our tracks
+and restored the branches as well as we could, and held a counsel in which
+every man had an equal voice.
+
+That it would be folly to remain on the beach until daylight, we were all
+agreed. Immediately beyond the muddy shore there was, so far as we could
+tell, only a salt marsh overgrown with rank grass and scattered clumps of
+vegetation, which might conceal us after a fashion if we were willing to
+lie all day long in mud that probably swarmed with reptile life, but which
+would afford us no real security and would give us no opportunity to forage
+for fresh water and food.
+
+Blodgett, wide-eyed and restless, urged that we set out inland and travel
+as far as possible before daybreak. "You can't tell about a country like
+this," he said. "Might be we'd stumble on a temple with a lot of heathen
+idols full of gold and precious stones to make our everlasting fortunes, or
+a nigger or two with a bag of rubies tied round his neck with a string."
+
+"Yeah!" the cook grunted, irritated by Blodgett's free use of the word
+"nigger," "and Ah's tellin' you he'll have a Malay kris what'll slit yo'
+vitals and chop off yo' head; and nex' time when you gwine come to say
+howdy, you'll find yo' ol' skull a-setting in de temple, chockfull of dem
+rubies and grinnin' like he was glad to see you back again. Ah ain't gwine
+on no such promulgation, no sah! What Ah wants is a good, cool drink and a
+piece of pie. Yass, sah,"
+
+"Now that's like I feel," said Neddie Benson. "I never thought when the
+lady was tellin' me about trouble in store, that there warn't goin' to be
+enough victuals to go round--"
+
+"Ah, you make me tired," Blodgett snapped out. "Food, food, food! And
+here's a chance to find a nice little temple an' better our fortunes. Of
+course it ain't like India, but if these here slant-eyed pirates have stole
+any gold at all, it'll be in the temples."
+
+"What I'd like"--it was Davie Paine's heavy, slow voice--"is just a drink
+of water and some ship's bread."
+
+"Well," said Roger, "we'll find neither bread nor rubies lying on the
+beach, and since we're agreed that it's best to get out of sight, let's set
+off."
+
+He was about to plunge blindly into the marsh, when Blodgett, who had been
+ranging restlessly while we talked, cried, "Here's a road! As I'm alive
+here's a road!"
+
+We trooped over to where he stood, and saw, sure enough, an opening in the
+brush and grass where the ground was beaten hard as if by the passing of
+many feet.
+
+"Well, let's be on our way," said Blodgett, starting forward.
+
+"No, sah, dat ain't no way foh to go!" the cook exclaimed. He stood there,
+head thrown forward, chin out-thrust, the cleaver, which he had carried all
+the time since we left the ship, hanging at his side.
+
+"Why not?" asked Roger.
+
+"'Cause, sah, whar dey's a road dey's humans and humans heahbouts on dese
+yeh islands is liable to be drefful free with strangers. Yass, sah, if we
+go a-walkin' along dat yeh road, fust thing we know we's gwine walk into a
+whole mob of dem yeh heathens. Den whar'll we be?" In answer to his
+question, the negro thrust out his left hand and, grasping an imaginary
+opponent by the throat, raised the cleaver, and swept it through the air
+with a slicing motion. Looking keenly at us to be sure that we grasped the
+significance of his pantomime he remarked, "Ah want mah ol' head to stay
+put."
+
+"There ain't going to be no village till we come to trees," said Davie
+Paine slowly. "If there is, we can see it anyhow, and if there isn't, this
+road'll take us across the marsh. Once we're on the other side, we can
+leave the road and take to the hills."
+
+"There's an idea," Roger cried. "How about it, Bennie?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+Blodgett eagerly went first and the cook, apparently fearing that he was on
+his way to be served as a particularly choice tidbit at somebody else's
+banquet, came last. The rest of us just jostled along together. But Davie
+Paine, I noticed, held his head higher than I ever had seen it before; for
+Roger's appreciation of his sound common sense had pleased him beyond
+measure and had done wonders to restore his self-confidence.
+
+First there were interwoven bushes and vines beside the road, and then tall
+reeds and marsh grasses; now there was sand underfoot, now mud. But it was
+a better path by far than any we could have beaten out for ourselves, and
+we all--except the cook--were well pleased that we had taken it.
+
+The bushes and tall grasses, which shut us in, prevented our seeing the
+ocean behind us or the hills ahead, and the miasmic mist that we had
+noticed some time since billowed around our knees. But the stars were very
+bright above us, and phosphorescent creatures like fire-flies fluttered
+here and there, and, all things considered, we made excellent progress.
+
+As it had been Blodgett in his eternal peering and prowling who had found
+the path, so now it was Blodgett, bending low as he hurried at the head of
+our irregular line, who twice stopped suddenly and said that he had heard
+hoarse, distant calls.
+
+Each time, when the rest of us came up to him and listened, they had died
+away, but Blodgett now had lost his confident air. He bent lower as he
+walked and he peered ahead in a way that seemed to me more prowling and
+catlike than ever. As we advanced his uneasiness grew on him, until
+presently he turned and raised his hand. The five of us crowded close
+together behind him and listened intently.
+
+For a while, as before, we heard nothing; then suddenly a new, strange
+noise came to our ears. It was an indistinct sound of trampling, and it
+certainly was approaching.
+
+The cook grasped my arm. "'Fo' de good Lo'd!" he muttered, "dey's voices!"
+
+Now I, too, and all the others heard occasional grunts and gutturals. We
+dared not flee back to the beach, for there or in the open marshy land we
+could not escape observation, and since it had taken us a good half hour to
+carry our boat to its hiding-place, it would be utter folly to try to
+launch it and put out to sea.
+
+Not knowing which way to turn, the six of us stood huddled together like
+frightened sheep, in the starlight, in the centre of that great marsh, with
+the white mist sweeping up around the bushes, and waited for we knew not
+what.
+
+As the noise of tramping and the guttural voices grew louder, Blodgett
+gasped, "Look! In heaven's name, look there!"
+
+Where the path wound over a gentle rise, which was blurred to our eyes by
+the mist, there appeared a moving black mass above which swayed and rose
+and fell what seemed to our excited vision the points of a great number of
+spears.
+
+With one accord we turned and plunged from the path straight into the marsh
+and ran with all our might and main. The cook, who hitherto had brought up
+the rear, now forged to the front, springing ahead with long jumps.
+Occasionally, as he leaped even higher to clear a bush or a stump, I could
+see his kinky round head against the sky, and catch the flash of starlight
+on his cleaver, which he still carried. Close behind him ran Neddie Benson,
+who saw in the adventures of the night a more terrible fulfillment of the
+plump lady's prophecies than ever he had dreamed of; then came Roger and I,
+and at my shoulder I heard Davie's heavy breathing and Blodgett's hard
+gasps.
+
+To snakes or other reptiles that may have inhabited the warm pools through
+which we splashed, we gave no thought. Somewhere ahead of us there was high
+land--had we not rowed close enough to the promontory to hear breakers?
+When Davie and Blodgett fairly panted to us to stop for breath, the cook
+and Neddie Benson with one voice urged us on to the hills where we could
+find rocks or trees for a shelter from which to stand off whatever savages
+might pursue us.
+
+Though we tried to make as little noise as possible, our splashing and
+crashing as we raced now in single file, now six abreast, now as
+irregularly as half a dozen sheep, must have been audible to keen ears a
+mile away. When we came at last to woods and drier ground, we settled down
+to a steady jog, which was much less noisy, but even then we stumbled and
+fell and clattered and thrashed as we labored on.
+
+At first we had heard in the night behind us, repeated over and over again,
+those hoarse, unintelligible calls and certain raucous blasts, which we
+imagined came from some crude native trumpet; but as we climbed, the rising
+mist floated about us, and hearing less of the calling and the blasts, we
+slowed down to a hard walk and went on up, up, up, through trees and over
+rocks, with the mist in our faces and obscuring the way until we could not
+see three feet in front of us, but had to keep together by calling
+cautiously now and then.
+
+Blodgett, coming first to a ridge of rock, stopped high above us like a
+shadow cast by the moonlight on the mist.
+
+"Here's the place to make a stand," he cried in his thin voice. "A nat'ral
+fort to lay behind. Come, lads, over we go!"
+
+Up on the rock we scrambled, all of us ready to jump down on the other
+side, when Neddie Benson called on us to stop, and with a queer cry let
+himself fall back the way he had come. Fearing that he was injured, we
+paused reluctantly.
+
+"Don't go over that rock," he cried.
+
+"Why not?" Roger asked.
+
+"It gives me a sick feeling inside."
+
+"Stuff!" exclaimed Blodgett. "Behind that rock we'll be safe from all the
+heathen in the Chinese Sea."
+
+"The lady she said there'd be trouble," Neddie wailed insistently, "and I
+ain't going over that rock. No, sir, not when I feel squeamish like I do
+now."
+
+With an angry snort Blodgett hesitated on the very summit of the ledge.
+"Come on, come on," he said.
+
+"Listen dah!" the cook whispered.
+
+I thought of savage yells and trampling feet when, crouching on hands and
+knees, I listened; but I heard none of them. The sound that came to my ears
+was the faint, distant rumble of surf breaking on rocks.
+
+Now Roger spoke sharply: "Steady, men, go slow."
+
+"The sea's somewhere beyond us," I said.
+
+"Come, come," Blodgett repeated tiresomely in his thin windy voice, "over
+these rocks and we'll be safe." He was so confident and eager that we were
+on the very point of following him. I actually leaned out over the edge
+ready to leap down. Never did a man's strange delusion come nearer to
+leading his comrades to disaster!
+
+The cook raised his hand. "Look--look dah!"
+
+He was staring past Blodgett's feet, past my hands, down at the rocks
+whither we were about to drop. The mist was opening slowly. There was
+nothing for more than six feet below us--for more than twelve feet. Now the
+mist eddied up to the rock again; now it curled away and opened out until
+we could look down to the ghostly, phosphorescent whiteness of waves
+breaking on rough stones almost directly under us. Blodgett, with a queer,
+frightened expression, crawled back to Neddie Benson.
+
+We were sitting at the brink of a sheer precipice, which fell away more
+than two hundred feet to a mass of jagged rock on which the sea was booming
+with a hollow sound like the voice of a great bell.
+
+"Well, here we'll have to make our stand if they follow us," said Davie.
+
+Although the rest were white with horror at the death we so narrowly had
+avoided, old Davie did not even breathe more quickly. The man had no more
+imagination than a porpoise.
+
+Gathering in the lee of the rocky ridge, we took stock of our weapons and
+recovered our self-possession. The cook again ran his thumb-nail along the
+edge of the cleaver; Roger examined the lock of his pistol--I saw a queer
+expression on his face at the time, but he said nothing; Blodgett sharpened
+his knife on his calloused palm and the rest of us found clubs and stones.
+We could flee no farther. Here, if we were pursued, we must fight. But
+although we waited a long time, no one came. The mist gradually passed off;
+the stars again shone brightly, and the moon presently peeped out from
+between the cone-shaped mountains on our eastern horizon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+IN WHICH THE TIDE TURNS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+IN LAST RESORT
+
+
+"They're not on our heels at all events," said Roger, when we had sat
+silent and motionless until we were cramped from head to foot. Of our
+little band, he was by far the least perturbed. "If we should set an anchor
+watch, we could sleep, turn and turn about. What do you say to that?"
+
+
+He had a way with him, partly the quiet humor that twinkled in his eyes,
+partly his courteous manner toward all of us, particularly the older men,
+that already had endeared him to every member of our company, and a general
+murmur of assent answered him.
+
+"Blodgett, Neddie, and I'll stand first watch, then. We'll make the watches
+three hours on deck and three below, if you say so. You others had best
+hunt out an easy place to sleep, but let every man keep his knife or club
+where he can snatch it up in case of attack."
+
+Remembering his comfortable quarters in the steerage of the Island
+Princess, the cook groaned; but we found a spot where there was some
+sun-baked earth, which we covered with such moss as we could lay our hands
+on, threw ourselves down, and fell asleep forthwith.
+
+We were so stiff when the other three waked us that we scarcely could stand
+without help; but we gradually worked new life into our sore muscles and
+took our stations with as much good-will as we could muster. Roger gave us
+his watch to tell the time by, and we agreed on separate posts from which
+to guard against surprise--the cook a little way down the hill to the
+right, Davie Paine farther to the left, and I on the summit of the rocks
+whence I could see in all directions.
+
+The wild view from that rock would have been a rare sight for old and
+experienced voyagers, and to me, a boy in years and in travels, it was
+fascinating both for its uncommon beauty and for the thousand perils that
+it might conceal. Who could say what savages were sleeping or prowling
+about under the dark branches of yonder shadowy woods? What wild creatures
+lurked in their depths? What pirate prows were steering their course by
+yonder cone-shaped peaks or by those same bright stars that twinkled
+overhead?
+
+I studied the outline of the island, with its miles of flat marshland deep
+in grass and tangled vines, its palms and dense forests, its romantic
+mountains, and its jagged northern cliffs; I watched the moonbeams
+sparkling on the water; I watched a single light shining far out at sea. By
+and by I saw inland, on the side of one of the hills, a light shining in
+the jungle, and stared at it with a sort of unwilling fascination.
+
+A light in the jungle could mean so many things!
+
+Startled by a sound down in our own camp, I quickly turned and saw old
+Blodgett scrambling up to where I sat.
+
+"It ain't no use," he said in an undertone. "I can't sleep." He twisted his
+back and writhed like a cat that wants to scratch itself against a
+doorpost. "What an island for temples! Ah, Benny, here's our chance to make
+our everlasting fortunes."
+
+I touched him and pointed at the distant light shining out of the darkness.
+
+Sitting down beside me, he watched it intently. "I tell ye, Benny," he
+murmured thoughtfully, "either me and you and the rest of us is going to
+make our everlasting fortunes out o' these here natives, or we're going to
+lay out under these here trees until the trumpet blows for Judgment."
+
+After a time he spoke again. "Ah, but it's a night to be stirring! I'll
+stake all my pay for this unlucky voyage that there's not a native on the
+island who hasn't a bag of rubies tied round his neck with a string, or
+maybe emeralds--there's a stone for you! Emeralds are green as the sea by a
+sandy shore and bright as a cat's eyes in the dark."
+
+Morning came quickly. Pink and gold tinted the cone-shaped peaks, the sky
+brightened from the color of steel to a clear cobalt, and all at once the
+world lay before us in the cool morning air, which the sun was soon to warm
+to a vapid heat. As we gathered at the summit of the cliff over which
+Blodgett nearly had let us into eternity, we could see below, flying in and
+out, birds of the variety, as I afterwards learned, that make edible nests.
+
+It now was apparent that the light I had seen at sea was that of a ship's
+lantern, for to our amazement the Island Princess lay in the offing.
+Landward unbroken verdure extended from the slope at our feet to the base
+of the cone-shaped peaks, and of the armed force that had frightened us so
+badly the evening before we saw no sign; but when we looked at the marsh we
+rubbed our eyes and stared anew.
+
+There was the rough hillside that we had climbed in terror; there was the
+marsh with its still pools, its lush herbage, and the "road" that wound
+from the muddy beach to the forest on our left. But in the marsh, scattered
+here and there--! The truth dawned on us slowly. All at once Blodgett
+slapped his thin legs and leaned back and laughed until tears started from
+his faded eyes; Neddie Benson stared at him stupidly, then poured out a
+flood of silly oaths. The cook burst into a hoarse guffaw, and Roger and
+Davie Paine chuckled softly. We stopped and looked at each other and then
+laughed together until we had to sit down on the ground and hold our aching
+sides.
+
+In the midst of the marsh were feeding a great number of big, long-horned
+water buffaloes. We now realized that the road we had followed was one of
+their trails that the guttural calls and blasts from rude trumpets were
+their snorts and blats, that the spears we had seen were their horns viewed
+from lower ground.
+
+The ebbing tide had left our boat far from the water, and since we were
+faint from our long fast, it was plain that, if we were to survive our
+experience, we must find help soon.
+
+"If I was asked," Davie remarked thoughtfully, "I'd say the thing to do was
+to follow along the edge of that there swamp to the forest, where maybe
+we'll find a bit of a spring and some kind of an animal Mr. Hamlin can
+shoot with that pistol of his."
+
+Roger drew the pistol from his belt and regarded it with a wry smile.
+"Unfortunately," he said, "I have no powder."
+
+At all events there was no need to stay longer where we were; so, retracing
+our steps of the evening before, we skirted the marsh and came to a place
+where there were many cocoanut trees. We were bitterly disappointed to find
+that our best efforts to climb them were of no avail. We dared not try to
+fell them with the cook's cleaver, lest the noise of chopping attract
+natives; for we were convinced by the light we had seen shining in the
+jungle that the island was inhabited. So we set off cautiously into the
+woods, and slowly tramped some distance through an undergrowth that
+scratched our hands and faces and tore our clothes. On the banks of a small
+stream we picked some yellow berries, which Blodgett ate with relish, but
+which the rest of us found unpalatable. We all drank water from the hollows
+of trees,--we dared not drink from the boggy stream,--and Neddie Benson ate
+the leaves of some bushes and urged the rest of us to try them. That we
+refused, we later had reason to be deeply thankful.
+
+Following the stream we crossed a well-marked path, which caused us
+considerable uneasiness, and came at last to an open glade, at the other
+end of which we saw a person moving. At that we bent double and retreated
+as noiselessly as possible. Once out of sight in the woods, we hurried off
+in single file till we thought we had put a safe distance behind us; but
+when we stopped to rest we were terrified by a noise in the direction from
+which we had come, and we hastened to conceal ourselves under the leaves
+and bushes.
+
+The noise slowly drew nearer, as if men were walking about and beating the
+undergrowth as they approached. Blodgett stared from his covert with beady
+eyes; Neddie gripped my wrist; the cook rubbed his thumb along the blade of
+the cleaver, and Roger fingered the useless pistol. Still the noises
+approached. At the sight of something that moved I felt my heart leap and
+stand still, then Blodgett laughed softly; a pair of great birds which flew
+away as soon as they saw us stirring, had occasioned our fears.
+
+Having really seen a man in the glade by the stream, we were resolved to
+incur no foolish risks; so we cautiously returned to the hill, whence we
+could watch the beach and the broad marsh and catch between the mountains a
+glimpse of a bay to the northeast where we now saw at a great distance some
+men fishing from canoes. While the rest of us prepared another hiding-place
+among the bushes, Roger and Blodgett sallied forth once more to reconnoitre
+in a new direction.
+
+Although we no longer could see the ship, we were much perplexed that she
+had lingered off the island, and we talked of it at intervals throughout
+the day. Whatever her purpose, we were convinced that for us it augured
+ill.
+
+Presently Roger and Blodgett returned in great excitement and reported that
+the woods were full of Malays. Apparently the natives were unaware of our
+presence but we dared not venture again in search of food, so we resumed
+our regular watches and slept in our turns. As soon as the sun should set
+we planned to skirt the mountains under the cover of darkness, in desperate
+hope of finding somewhere food and water with which we could return to our
+boat and defy death by putting out to sea; but ere the brief twilight of
+the tropics had settled into night, Neddie Benson was writhing and groaning
+in mortal agony. We were alarmed, and for a time could think of no
+explanation; but after a while black Frank looked up from where he crouched
+by the luckless Neddie and fiercely muttered:--
+
+"What foh he done eat dem leaves? Hey? Tell me dat!"
+
+It was true that Neddie alone had eaten the leaves. A heavy price he was
+paying for it! We all looked at Blodgett with an anxiety that it would have
+been kinder, perhaps, to hide, and Blodgett himself seemed uneasy lest he
+should be poisoned by the berries he had eaten. But no harm came of them,
+and by the time the stars were shining again Neddie appeared to be over the
+worst of his sickness and with the help of the rest of us managed to
+stagger along. So we chose a constellation for our guide and set off
+through the undergrowth.
+
+Even Blodgett by this time had got over his notion of robbing temples.
+
+"If only we was to run on a yam patch," he said to me as together we
+stumbled forward, "or maybe some chickens or a little rice or a vegetable
+garden or a spring of cold water--"
+
+But only a heavy sigh answered him, a grunt from the cook, and a moan from
+Neddie. Our spirits were too low to be stirred even by Blodgett's visionary
+tales. It was hard to believe that the moon above the mountains was the
+same that had shone down upon us long before off the coast of Sumatra.
+
+The woods were so thick that we soon lost sight of our constellation, but
+we kept on our way, stopping often to rest, and made what progress we
+could. More than once we heard at a little distance noises that indicated
+the presence of wild beasts; and the brambles and undergrowth tore our
+clothes and scratched and cut our skin till blood ran from our hands and
+faces. But the thing that alarmed us most we heard one time when we had
+thrown ourselves on the ground to rest. Though it came from a great
+distance it unmistakably was four distinct gunshots.
+
+Too weak and exhausted to talk, yet determined to carry through our
+undertaking, we pushed on and on till we could go no farther; then we
+dropped where we stood, side by side, and slept.
+
+Morning woke us. Through the trees we saw a cone-shaped peak and a great
+marsh where buffalo were feeding. We unwittingly had circled in the night
+and had come back to within a quarter of a mile of the very point from
+which we had set forth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A STORY IN MELON SEEDS
+
+
+We were all gaunt and unkempt after our hardships of the past two days, but
+Neddie, poor fellow, looked more like a corpse than a living man and moaned
+with thirst and scarcely could sit up without help. Finding about a pint of
+water close at hand in the hollow of a tree, we carried him to it and he
+sucked it up with a straw till it was all gone; but though it relieved his
+misery, he was manifestly unable to walk, even had we dared stir abroad, so
+we stayed where we were while the sun rose to the meridian. We could find
+so little water that we all suffered from thirst, and with Neddie's
+sickness in mind none of us dared eat more leaves or berries.
+
+The afternoon slowly wore away; the tide came in across the flats; the
+shadows lengthened hour by hour. But no breath of wind cooled our hot
+faces. Neddie lay in a heap, moaning fitfully; Blodgett and Davie Paine
+slept; Roger sat with his back to a tree and watched the incoming tide; the
+cook stirred about uneasily and muttered to himself.
+
+Coming over to me, he crouched at my side and spoke of Kipping. He was
+savagely vindictive. "Hgh!" he grunted, "dat yeh crimp! He got dis nigger
+once, yass, sah. Got me to dat boa'din' house what he was runner foh. Yass,
+sah. Ah had one hunnerd dollahs in mah pants pocket, yass, sah. Nex'
+mohnin' Ah woke up th'ee days lateh 'boa'd ship bound foh London. Ah ain'
+got no hunnerd dollah in mah pants pocket. Dat yeh Kipping he didn't leave
+me no pants pocket." The old black pulled open his shirt and revealed a
+jagged scar on his great shoulder. "Look a' dat! Cap'n done dat--dat yeh
+v'yage. Hgh!"
+
+At dusk Neddie's moaning woke the sleepers, and we held a council in which
+we debated plans for the future. Daring neither to venture abroad nor to
+eat the native fruits and leaves, exhausted by exposure, perishing of
+hunger and thirst, we faced a future that was dark indeed.
+
+"As for me," said Davie calmly, "I can see only one way to end our misery."
+He glanced at the cook's cleaver as he spoke.
+
+"No, no!" Roger cried sharply. "Let us have no such talk as that, Davie."
+He hesitated, looking first at us,--his eyes rested longest on Neddie's
+hollow face,--then at the marsh; then he leaned forward and looked from one
+to another. "Men," he said, "I see no better way out of our difficulties
+than to surrender to the natives."
+
+"Oh, no, no, sah! No, sah! Don' do dat, sah! No, no no!" With a yell black
+Frank threw himself on his knees. "No, sah, no, sah! Dey's we'y devils,
+sah, dey's wuss 'n red Injuns, sah!"
+
+"Fool." Roger cried. "Be still!" Seeming to hold the negro in contempt, he
+turned to the rest of us and awaited our answer.
+
+At the time we were amazed at his harshness, and the poor cook was
+completely overwhelmed; for little as Roger said, there was something in
+his manner of saying it that burned like fire. But later, when we looked
+back on that day and remembered how bitterly we were discouraged, we saw
+reason to thank God that Roger Hamlin had had the wisdom and the power to
+crush absolutely the first sign of insubordination.
+
+Staring in a curious way at the cook, who was fairly groveling on the
+earth, Blodgett spoke up in a strangely listless voice. "I say yes, sir. If
+we're to die, we're to die anyhow, and there's a bare chance they'll feed
+us before they butcher us."
+
+"Ay," said Davie. "Me, too!"
+
+And Neddie made out to nod.
+
+The cook, watching the face of each man in turn, began to blubber; and when
+I, the youngest and last, cast my vote with the rest, he literally rolled
+on the ground and bellowed.
+
+"Get up!" Roger snapped out at him.
+
+He did so in a kind of stupid wonder.
+
+"Now then, cook, there's been enough of this nonsense. Come, let's sleep.
+At daylight to-morrow we'll be on our way."
+
+Apparently the negro at first doubted his ears; but Roger's peremptory tone
+brought him to his senses, and the frank disapproval of the others ended
+his perversity.
+
+A certain confidence that our troubles were soon to be ended in one way or
+another, coupled with exhaustion, enabled me to sleep deeply that night,
+despite the numberless perils that beset us.
+
+I was aware that the cook continually moaned to himself and that at some
+time in the night Roger and Blodgett were throwing stones at a wild beast
+that was prowling about. Then the sun shone full on my face and I woke with
+a start.
+
+Roger and Davie Paine each gave Neddie Benson an arm, Blodgett and I pushed
+ahead to find the best footing, and the cook, once more palsied with fear,
+again came last. To this day I have not been able to account for Frank's
+strange weakness. In all other circumstances he was as brave as a lion.
+
+Staggering along as best we could, we arrived at the stream we had found
+before--we dared not drink its water, even in our extremity--and followed
+it to the glade, which this time we boldly entered. At first we saw no one,
+but when we had advanced a few steps, we came upon three girls fishing from
+the bank of the stream. As they darted off along the path that led up the
+glade, we started after them, but we were so weak that, when we had gone
+only a short distance, we had to sit down on the trunk of a large tree to
+rest.
+
+About a quarter of an hour later we heard steps, and shortly seven men
+appeared by the same path.
+
+Indicating by a motion of his hand that he wished the rest of us to remain
+seated, Roger rose and went fearlessly to meet the seven. When he had
+approached within a short distance, they stopped and drew their krises, or
+knives with waved points. Never hesitating, Roger continued to advance
+until he was within six feet of them, then falling on his knees and
+extending his empty hands, he begged for mercy.
+
+For a long time they stood with drawn knives, staring at him and at us;
+then one of them put up his kris, and knelt in front of him and offered him
+both hands, which, it seemed, was a sign of friendship.
+
+When we indicated by gestures that we were hungry, they immediately gave us
+each a cocoanut; but meanwhile some twenty or thirty more natives had
+arrived at the spot where we were, and they now proceeded to take our hats
+and handkerchiefs, and to cut the buttons from our coats.
+
+Presently they gave us what must have been an order to march. At all events
+we walked with them at a brisk pace along a well-marked trail, between
+great ferns and rank canes and grasses, and after a time we came to a
+village composed of frail, low houses or bungalows, from which other
+natives came running. Some of them shook their fists at us angrily; some
+picked up sticks and clubs or armed themselves with knives and krises, and
+came trailing along behind. Children began to throw clods and pebbles at
+us. The mob was growing rapidly, and for some cause, their curiosity to see
+the white men, the like of whom most of them probably never had seen
+before, was unaccountably mixed with anger.
+
+If they were going to kill us, why did they not cut our throats and have it
+done with? Still the people came running, till the whining of their voices
+almost deafened us; and still they hustled us along, until at last we came
+to a house larger than any we had passed.
+
+Here they all stopped, and our captors, with as many of the clamoring mob
+as the place would hold, drove us through the open door into what appeared
+to be the judgment-hall of the village. Completely at their mercy, we stood
+by the judgment-seat in the centre of a large circle and waited until, at
+the end of perhaps half an hour, an even greater uproar arose in the
+distance.
+
+There was much stirring and talking and new faces continued to appear. From
+where I stood I could see that the growing throng was armed with spears and
+knives. More and more natives pressed into the ring that surrounded us and
+listened intently to a brisk discussion, of which none of us could
+understand a word.
+
+In one corner was a heap of melons; in another were spears and shields. I
+was looking at them curiously when something familiar just above them
+caught my eye and sent a stab of fear through my heart. In that array of
+savage weapons were _three ship's cutlasses_. I was familiar enough with
+the rife of those Eastern islands to know what that meant.
+
+Everywhere in the dim hall were bared knives, and muttering voices now and
+then rose to loud shrieks. What with faintness and fatigue and fear, I felt
+myself growing weak and dizzy. The circle of hostile faces and knives and
+spears seemed suddenly dim and far-away. In all the hut I could see only
+the three ship's cutlasses in the corner, and think only of what a grand
+history theirs must have been.
+
+The distant roar that came slowly nearer seemed so much like a dream that I
+thought I must be delirious, and rubbed my eyes and ears and tried to
+compose myself; but the roar continued to grow louder, and now a more
+intense clamor arose. The crowd parted and in through the open lane came a
+wild, tall man, naked except for a pair of short breeches, a girdle, and a
+red handkerchief on his head, who carried a drawn kris. Coming within the
+circle, he stopped and stared at us. Then everything grew white and I found
+myself lying on my back on the floor, looking up at them all and wondering
+if they had killed me already. Small wonder that starvation and exposure
+had proved too much for me!
+
+Roger was down on his knees beside me,--he told me long afterwards that
+nothing ever gave him such a start as did my ghastly pallor,--and the
+others, in the face of our common danger, gathered round me solicitously.
+All, that is, except the cook; for, although our captors had exhibited a
+lively curiosity about those of us who were white, they had frightened the
+poor negro almost out of his wits by feeling of his cheeks and kinky hair
+and by punching his ribs with their fingers, until now, having been
+deprived of his beloved cleaver, he cowered like a scared puppy before the
+gravely interested natives. "O Lo'd," he muttered between chattering teeth,
+"O Lo'd, why am dis yeh nigger so popolous? O Lo'd, O Lo'd, dah comes
+anotheh--dah comes anotheh!"
+
+Of the hostility of our captors there now could be no doubt. The sinister
+motion of their weapons, the angry glances that they persistently darted at
+us, the manner and inflection of their speech, all were threatening. But
+Roger, having made sure that I was not injured, was on his feet and already
+had faced boldly the angry throng.
+
+Though we could not understand the savages and they could not understand
+us, Roger's earnestness when he began to speak commanded their attention,
+and the chief fixed his eyes on him gravely. But some one else repeated it
+twice a phrase that sounded like "Pom-pom, pom-pom!" And the rest burst
+into angry yells.
+
+Roger indignantly threw his hands down,--palms toward the chief,--as if to
+indicate that we had come in friendship; but the man laughed scornfully and
+repeated the phrase, "Pom-pom!"
+
+Again Roger spoke indignantly; again he threw his hands down, palms out.
+But once more the cry, "Pom-pom, pom-pom," rose fiercely, and the angry
+throng pressed closer about us. The rest of us had long since despaired of
+our lives, and for the moment even Roger was baffled.
+
+"Pom-pom, pom-pom!"
+
+What the phrase meant we had not the remotest idea, but that our state now
+was doubly perilous the renewed hubbub and the closing circle of weapons
+convinced us.
+
+"Pom-pom, pom-pom!" Again and again in all parts of the hall we heard the
+mysterious words.
+
+Was there nothing that we could do to prove our good faith? Nothing to show
+them that at least we did not come as enemies?
+
+Over Davie Fame's face an odd expression now passed. He was staring at the
+heap of melons.
+
+"Mr. Hamlin," he said in a low voice, "if we was to cut a ship out of one
+of them melons, and a boat and some men, we could show these 'ere heathen
+how we didn't aim to bother them, and then maybe they'd let us go away
+again."
+
+"Davie, Davie, man," Roger cried, "there's an idea!"
+
+I was completely bewildered. What could Davie mean, I wondered. Melons and
+a ship? Were he and Roger mad? From Roger's actions I verily believed they
+were.
+
+He faced our captors for a moment as if striving to think of some way to
+impress them; then, with a quick gesture, he deliberately got down on the
+floor and took the chief's foot and placed it on his head, to signify that
+we were completely in the fellow's power. Next he rose and faced the man
+boldly, and began a solemn and impressive speech. His grave air and stern
+voice held their attention, though they could not understand a word he
+said; and before their interest had time to fail, he drew from his pocket a
+penknife, a weapon so small that it had escaped their prying fingers, and
+walking deliberately to the corner where the melons were heaped up, took
+one of them and began to cut it.
+
+At first they started forward; but when Roger made no hostile motion, they
+gathered round him in silence to see what he was doing.
+
+"Here, men, is the ship," he said gravely, "and here the boats." Kneeling
+and continuing his speech, he cut from the melon-rind a roughly shaped
+model of a ship, and stuck in it, to represent masts, three slivers of
+bamboo, which he split from a piece that lay on the floor; then he cut a
+smaller model, which he laid on the deck of the ship, to represent a boat.
+On one side of the deck he upright six melon seeds, on the other twelve.
+Pointing at the six seeds and holding up six fingers, he pointed at each
+of us in turn.
+
+Suddenly one of the natives cried out in his own tongue; then another and
+another seemed to understand Roger's meaning as they jabbered among
+themselves and in turn pointed at the six seeds and at the six white men
+whom they had captured.
+
+Roger then imitated a fight, shaking his fists and slashing as if with a
+cutlass, and, last of all, he pointed his finger, and cried, "Bang! Bang!"
+
+At this the natives fairly yelled in excitement and repeated over and over,
+"Pom--pom--pom--pom!"
+
+"Bang-bang!"--"Pom-pom!" We suddenly understood the phrase that they had
+used so often.
+
+Now in dead silence, all in the hut, brown men and white, pressed close
+around the melon-rind boat on the floor. So moving the melon seeds that it
+was obvious that the six men represented by six seeds were being driven
+overboard, Roger next set the boat on the floor and transferred them to it.
+Lining up all the rest along the side of the ship, he cried loudly, "Bang
+bang!"
+
+"Cook," he called, beckoning to black Frank, "come here!"
+
+As the negro reluctantly obeyed, Roger pointed to the long gash that
+Kipping's bullet had cut in his kinky scalp. Crying again, "Bang-bang!" he
+pointed at one of the seeds in the boat and then at the cook.
+
+Not one of them who could see the carved boats failed to understand what
+Roger meant, and the brown men looked at Frank and laughed and talked more
+loudly and excitedly than ever. Then the chief stood up and cried to some
+one in the farthest corner of the room, and at that there was more laughing
+and shouting. The man in the corner seemed much abashed; but those about
+him pushed him forward, and he was shoved along through the crowd until he,
+too, stood beside the table, where a dozen men pointed at his head and
+cried "Bang-bang!" or "Pom-pom!" as the case might be.
+
+To our amazement we saw that just over his right temple there was torn the
+path of a bullet, exactly that on the cook's head.
+
+[Illustration:
+He cut from the melon-rind a roughly shaped model of a ship and stuck in
+it, to represent masts, three slivers of bamboo.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+NEW ALLIES
+
+
+Now the chief reached for Roger's knife and deftly whittled out the shape
+of a native canoe. In it he placed several seeds, then, pushing it against
+the carved ship, he pointed to the man with the bullet wound on his temple
+and cried, "Pom-pom!" Next he pointed at two seeds in the boat and said,
+"Pom-pom," and snapped them out of the canoe with his finger.
+
+"Would you believe it!" Blodgett gasped. "The heathens went out to the ship
+in one o' them boats, and Falk fired on 'em!"
+
+"And two of 'em was killed!" Davie exclaimed unnecessarily.
+
+Roger now laid half a melon on the floor, its flat side down, and moved the
+boat slowly over to it.
+
+That the half-melon represented the island was apparent to all. The natives
+crowded round us, jabbering questions that we could not understand and of
+course could not answer; they examined the cook's wound and compared it
+with the wound their friend had suffered; they pointed at the little boats
+cut out of melon-rind and laughed uproariously.
+
+Now one of them made a suggestion, the others took it up, and the chief
+split melons and offered a half to each of us.
+
+We ate them like the starving men we were, and did not notice that the
+chief had assembled his head men for a consultation, until he sent a man
+running from the hall, returned shortly with six pieces of betel nut, which
+the natives chew instead of tobacco, and gave them to the chief, who handed
+one to each of us as a mark of friendship. Next, to our amazement, one of
+the natives produced Roger's useless pistol and handed it back to him; and
+as if that were a signal, one after another they restored our knives and
+clubs, until, last of all, a funny little man with a squint handed the
+cleaver back to the cook.
+
+With a tremendous sigh of relief, Frank seized the mighty weapon and laid
+it on his knee and buried his big white teeth in half a melon. "Mah golly!"
+he muttered, when he had swallowed the huge mouthful and had wiped his lips
+and chin with the back of his hand, "Ah neveh 'spected to see dis yeh
+felleh again. No, sah!" And he tapped the cleaver lovingly.
+
+The chief, who had been talking earnestly with his counselors, now made
+signs to attract our attention. Obviously he wished to tell us a story of
+his own. He cut out a number of slim canoes from the melon-rind and laid
+them on the half-melon that represented the island; next, he pushed the
+ship some distance away on the floor. Blowing on it through pursed lips, he
+turned it about and drew it back toward the half-melon that represented the
+island. When it was in the lee of the island, he stopped it and looked up
+at us and smiled and pointed out of the door. We were puzzled. Seeing our
+blank expressions, he repeated the process. Still we could not understand.
+
+Persisting in his efforts, he now launched three roughly carved canoes, in
+which he placed a number of seeds, pointing at himself and various others;
+then in each of the prows he placed two seeds and pointed at the six of us,
+two at a time. Pointing next at the roof of the hut, he waved his hand from
+east to west and closed his eyes as if in sleep, after which he placed his
+finger on his lips, pushed the carved canoes very slowly across the floor
+toward the ship, then, with a screech that made our hair stand on end, he
+rushed them at the seeds that represented Captain Falk and his men,
+yelling, "Pom-pom-pom-pom!" and snapped the seeds off on the floor.
+
+Leaning back, he bared his teeth and laughed ferociously.
+
+Here was a plot to take the ship! Although we probably had missed the fine
+points of it, we could not mistake its general character.
+
+"Ay," said Blodgett, as if we had been discussing the matter for hours,
+"but we'll be a pack of bloody pirates to be hanged from the yard-arms of
+the first frigate that overhauls us."
+
+It was true. We should be liable as pirates in any port in Christendom.
+
+"Men," said Roger coolly, "there's no denying that in the eyes of the law
+we'd be pirates as well as mutineers. But if we can take the ship and sail
+it back to Salem, we'll be acquitted of any charge of mutiny or piracy, I
+can promise you. It'll be easy to ship a new crew at Canton, and we can
+settle affairs with the Websters' agents there so that at least we'll have
+a chance at a fair trial if we are taken on our homeward voyage. Shall we
+venture it?"
+
+The cook rolled his eyes. "Gimme dat yeh Kipping!" he cried, and with a
+savage cackle he swung his cleaver.
+
+"Falk for me, curse him!" Davie Paine muttered with a neat that surprised
+me. I had not realized that emotions as well as thoughts developed so
+slowly in Davie's big, leisurely frame that he now was just coming to the
+fullness of his wrath at the indignities he had undergone.
+
+Turning to the native chief, Roger cried, "We're with you!" And he
+extended his hand to seal the bargain.
+
+Of course the man could not understand the words but in the nods we had
+exchanged and in the cook's fierce glee, he had read our consent, and he
+laughed and talked with the others, who laughed, too, and pointed at
+Roger's pistol and cried, "Pom-pom!" and at the cook's cleaver and cried,
+"Whish!"
+
+When by signs Roger indicated that we needed sleep the chief issued orders,
+and half a dozen natives led us to a hut that seemed to be set apart for
+our use. But although we were nearly perishing with fatigue, they urged by
+signs that we follow them, and so insistent were they that we reluctantly
+obeyed.
+
+Climbing a little hill beyond the village, we came to a cleared spot
+surrounded by bushes through which we looked across between the mountains
+to where we could just see the open ocean. There, not three miles away, the
+Island Princess rode at anchor.
+
+I remember thinking, as I fell asleep, of the chance that Falk and Kipping
+would sail away before it was dark enough to attack them, and I spoke of it
+to Roger and the others, who shared my fear; but when our savage hosts
+wakened us, we knew by their eagerness that the ship still lay at her
+anchor. Why she remained, we could not agree. We hazarded a score of
+conjectures and debated them with lively interest.
+
+Presently the natives brought us rice and sago-bread and peas.
+
+As I ate and looked out into the darkness where fires were twinkling, I
+wondered which was the light I had seen that night when I watched from the
+summit of the headland.
+
+Though a gentle rain was falling, the whole village was alive with people.
+Men armed with spears and krises squatted in all parts of the hut. Boys
+came and went in the narrow circle of light. Women and girls looked from
+the door and from the farthest corners. Now and then some one would point
+at Roger's pistol and cry, "Pom-pom!" or, to the pride and delight of the
+cook, point at the cleaver and cry, "Whish!" and laugh loudly.
+
+Even black Frank had got over his terror of having natives come up without
+warning and feel of his arm or his woolly head, though he muttered
+doubtfully, "Ah ain't sayin' as Ah likes it. Dah's su'thin' so kind of
+hongry de way dey comes munchin' an' proddin' round dis yeh ol' niggeh."
+
+At midnight we went out into the dark and the rain, and followed single
+file after our leader along a narrow path that led through dripping ferns
+and pools of mud and water, over roots and rocks, and under low branches,
+which time and again swung back and struck our faces.
+
+We were drenched to the skin when we came at last to a sluggish, black
+little stream, which ran slowly under thick overhanging trees, and in other
+circumstances we should have been an unhappy and rebellious crew. But now
+the spell of adventure was upon us. Our savage guides moved silently and
+surely, and the forest was so mysterious and strange that I found its
+allurement all but irresistible. The slow, silent stream, on which now and
+then lights as faint and elusive as wisps of cloud played fitfully,
+reflected from I knew not where, had a fascination that I am sure the
+others felt as strongly as I. So we followed in silence and watched all
+that the dense blackness of the night let us see.
+
+Now the natives launched canoes, which slipped out on the water and lay
+side by side in the stream. Roger and Neddie Benson got into one; Blodgett
+and Davie Paine another; the cook and I into a third, Whatever thoughts or
+plans we six might have, we could not express them to the natives, and we
+were too widely separated to put them into practice ourselves. We could
+only join in the fight with good-will when the time came, and I assure you,
+the thought made me very nervous indeed. Also, I now realized that the
+natives had taken no chance of treachery on our part: _behind each of us
+sat an armed man_.
+
+The canoes shot ahead so swiftly under the pressure of the paddles that
+they seemed actually to have come to life. But they moved as noiselessly as
+shadows. We glided down the stream and out in a long line into a little
+bay, where we gathered, evidently to arrange the last details of the
+attack. I heard Roger say in a low voice, "We'll reach the ship about three
+bells and there couldn't be a better hour." Then, with a few low words of
+command from the native chief, we spread out again into an irregular,
+swiftly moving fleet, and swept away from the shore.
+
+As I looked back at the island I could see nothing, for the cloudy sky and
+the drizzly rain completely obscured every object beyond a limited circle
+of water; but as I looked ahead, my heart leaped and my breath came
+quickly. We had passed the farthest point of land and there, dimly in the
+offing, shone a single blurred light, which I knew was on the Island
+Princess.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+WE ATTACK
+
+
+In the darkness and rain we soon lost sight even of those nearest us on
+each side, but we knew by the occasional almost imperceptible whisper of a
+paddle in the water, or by the faintest murmur of speech, that the others
+were keeping pace with us.
+
+To this day I do not understand how the paddlers maintained the proper
+intervals in our line of attack; yet maintain them they did, by some means
+or other, according to a preconcerted plan, for we advanced without hurry
+or hesitation.
+
+Approaching the ship more closely, we made out the rigging, which the soft
+yellow light of the lantern dimly revealed. We saw, too, a single dark
+figure leaning on the taffrail, which became clear as we drew nearer. I was
+surprised to perceive that we had come up astern of the ship--quite without
+reason I had expected to find her lying bow on. Now we rode the gentle
+swell without sound or motion. The slow paddles held us in the same place
+with regard to the ship, and minutes passed in which my nervousness rose to
+such a pitch that I felt as if I must scream or clap my hands simply to
+shatter that oppressive, tantalizing, almost unendurable silence. But when
+I started to turn and whisper to the cook, something sharp and cold pricked
+through the back of my shirt and touched my skin, and from that time on I
+sat as still as a wooden figurehead.
+
+After a short interval I made out other craft drawing in on our right and
+left, and I later learned that, while we waited, the canoes were forming
+about the ship a circle of hostile spears. But it then seemed at every
+moment as if the man who was leaning on the taffrail must espy us,--it
+always is hard for the person in the dark, who sees what is near the light,
+to realize that he himself remains invisible,--and a thousand fears swept
+over me.
+
+There came now from somewhere on our right a whisper no louder than a
+mouse's hiss of warning or of threat. I scarcely was aware of it. It might
+have been a ripple under the prow of the canoe, a slightest turn of a
+paddle. Yet it conveyed a message that the natives instantly understood.
+The man just behind me repeated it so softly that his repetition was
+scarcely audible, even to me who sat so near that I could feel his breath,
+and at once the canoe seemed silently to stir with life. Inch by inch we
+floated forward, until I could see clearly the hat and coat-collar of the
+man who was leaning against the rail. It was Kipping.
+
+From forward came the cautious voices of the watch. The light revealed the
+masts and rigging of the ship for forty or fifty feet from the deck, but
+beyond the cross-jack yard all was hazy, and the cabin seemed in the odd
+shadows twice its real size. I wondered if Falk were asleep, too, or if we
+should come on him sitting up in the cabin, busy with his books and charts.
+I wondered who was in the galley, where I saw a light; who was standing
+watch; who was asleep below. Still we moved noiselessly on under the stern
+of the ship, until I almost could have put my hands on the carved letters,
+"Island Princess."
+
+Besides things on deck, the light also revealed our own attacking party.
+The man in front of me had laid his paddle in the bottom of the canoe and
+held a spear across his knees. In the boat on our right were five natives
+armed with spears and krises; in the one on our left, four. Beyond the
+craft nearest to us I could see others less distinctly--silent shadows on
+the water, each with her head toward our prey, like a school of giant fish.
+In the lee of the ship, the pinnace floated at the end of its painter.
+
+Still the watch forward talked on in low, monotonous voices; still Kipping
+leaned on the rail, his head bent, his arms folded, to all appearances fast
+asleep.
+
+I had now forgotten my fears. I was keenly impatient for the word to
+attack.
+
+A shrill wailing cry suddenly burst on the night air. The man in front of
+me, holding his spear above his head with one hand, made a prodigious leap
+from the boat, caught the planking with his fingers, got toe-hold on a
+stern-port, and went up over the rail like a wild beast. With knives
+between their teeth, men from the proas on my right and left boarded the
+ship by the chains, by the rail, by the bulwark.
+
+I saw Kipping leap suddenly forward and whirl about like a weasel in his
+tracks. His yell for all hands sounded high above the clamor of the
+boarders. Then some one jabbed the butt of a spear into my back and,
+realizing that mine was not to be a spectator's part in that weird battle,
+I scrambled up the stern as best I could.
+
+The watch on deck, I instantly saw, had backed against the forecastle where
+the watch below was joining it. Captain Falk and some one else, of whose
+identity I could not be sure, rushed armed from the cabin. Then a missile
+crashed through the lantern, and in the darkness I heard sea-boots banging
+on the deck as those aft raced forward to join the crew.
+
+I clambered aboard, waving my arms and shouting; then I stood and listened
+to the chorus of yells fore and aft, the _slip-slip-slip_ of bare feet, the
+thud of boots as the Americans ran this way and that. I sometimes since
+have wondered how I escaped death in that wild melee in the darkness.
+Certainly I was preserved by no effort of my own, for not knowing which way
+to turn, ignored by friend and foe alike, almost stunned by the terrible
+sounds that rose on every side, I simply clutched the rail and was as
+unlike the hero that my silly dreams had made me out to be--never had I
+dreamed of such a night!--as is every half-grown lad who stands side by
+side with violent death.
+
+Of Kipping I now saw nothing, but as a light momentarily flared up, I
+caught a glimpse of Captain Falk and his party sidling along back to back,
+fighting off their assailants while they struggled to launch a boat. Time
+and time again I heard the spiteful crack of their guns and their oaths and
+exclamations. Presently I also heard another sound that made my heart
+throb; a man was moaning as if in great pain.
+
+Then another cried, with an oath, "They've got me! O Tom, haul out that
+spear!" A scream followed and then silence.
+
+Some one very near me, who as yet was unaware of my presence, said, "He's
+dead."
+
+"Look out!" cried another. "See! There behind you!"
+
+I was startled and instinctively dodged back. There was a crashing report
+in my face; the flame of a musket singed my brows and hair, and powder
+stung my skin. Then, as the man clubbed his gun, I dashed under his guard,
+scarcely aware of the pain in my shoulder, and locking my right heel behind
+his left, threw him hard to the deck, where we slipped and slid in a warm
+slippery stream that was trickling across the planks.
+
+Back and forth we rolled, neither of us daring to give the other a moment's
+breathing-space in which to draw knife or pistol; and all the time the
+fight went on over our heads. I now heard Roger crying to the rest of us to
+stand by. I heard what I supposed to be his pistol replying smartly to the
+fire from Falk's party, and wondered where in that scene of violence he had
+got powder and an opportunity to load. But for the most part I was rolling
+and struggling on the slippery deck.
+
+When some one lighted a torch and the flame flared up and revealed the grim
+scene, I saw that Falk and his remaining men were trying at the same time
+to stand off the enemy and to scramble over the bulwark, and I realized
+that they must have drawn up the pinnace. But I had only the briefest
+glimpse of what was happening, for I was in deadly terror every minute lest
+my antagonist thrust a knife between my ribs. I could hear him gasping now
+as he strove to close his hands on my throat, and for a moment I thought he
+had me; but I twisted away, got half on my knees with him under me, sprang
+to my feet, then slipped once more on the slow stream across the planks,
+and fell heavily.
+
+In that moment I had seen by torchlight that the pinnace was clear of the
+ship and that the men with their guns and spikes were holding off the
+natives. I had seen, too, a spear flash across the space of open water and
+cut down one of the men. But already my adversary was at me again, and with
+his two calloused hands he once more was gripping my throat. I exerted all
+my strength to keep from being throttled. I tried to scream, but could only
+gurgle. His head danced before me and seemed to swing in circles. I felt
+myself losing strength. I rallied desperately, only to be thrown.
+
+Then, suddenly, I realized that he had let me go and had sat down beside me
+breathing heavily. It was the man from Boston whose nose had been broken.
+He eyed me curiously as if an idea had come upon him by surprise.
+
+"I didn't go to fight so hard, mate," he gasped, "but you did act so kind
+of vicious that I just had to."
+
+"You what?" I exclaimed, not believing my ears.
+
+"It's the only way I had to come over to your side," he said with a
+whimper. "Falk would 'a' killed me if I'd just up an' come, though I wanted
+to, honest I did."
+
+I put my hand on my throbbing shoulder, and stared at him incredulously.
+
+"You don't need to look at me like that," he sniveled. "Didn't I stand by
+Bill Hayden to the last along with you? Ain't I human? Ain't I got as much
+appreciation as any man of what it means to have a murderin' pair of
+officers like Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping? You don't suppose, do you, that
+I'd stay by 'em without I had to?"
+
+I was somewhat impressed by his argument, and he, perceiving it, continued
+vehemently, "I _had_ to fight with you. They'd 'a' killed you, too, if I
+hadn't."
+
+There was truth in that. Unquestionably they would have shot me down
+without hesitation if we two had not grappled in such a lively tussle that
+they could not hit one without hitting the other.
+
+We got up and leaned on the bulwark and looked down at the boat, which rode
+easily on the slow, oily swell. There in the stern-sheets the torchlight
+now revealed Falk.
+
+"I'm lawful master of this vessel," he called back, looking up at the men
+who lined the side. "I'll see you hanged from the yard-arm yet, you
+white-livered wharf-rats, and you, too, you cabin-window popinjay!"--I knew
+that he meant me.--"There'll come a day, by God! There'll come a day!"
+
+The men in the boat gave way, and it disappeared in the darkness and mist,
+its sides bristling with weapons.
+
+But still Falk's voice came back to us shrilly, "I'll see you yet a-hanging
+by your necks," until at last we could only hear him cursing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WHAT WE FOUND IN THE CABIN
+
+
+Now some one called, "Ben! Ben Lathrop! Where are you?"
+
+"Here I am," I cried as loudly as I could.
+
+"Well, Ben, what's this? Are you wounded?"
+
+It was Roger, and when he saw with whom I was talking he smiled.
+
+"Well, Bennie," he cried, "so we've got a prisoner, have we?"
+
+"No, sir," whimpered the man from Boston, "not a prisoner. I come over, I
+did."
+
+"You what?"
+
+"I come over--to your side, sir."
+
+"How about it, Ben?"
+
+"Why, so he says. We were having a pretty hard wrestling match, but he says
+it was to cover up his escape from the other party."
+
+"How was I to get away, sir, if I didn't have a subterfoog," the prisoner
+interposed eagerly. "I _had_ to wrastle. If I hadn't have, they'd 'a' shot
+me down as sure as duff on Sunday."
+
+For my own part I was not yet convinced of his good faith. He had gripped
+my throat quite too vindictively. To this very day, when I close my eyes I
+can feel his hard fingers clenched about my windpipe and his knees forcing
+my arms down on the bloody deck. He had let me go, too, only when we both
+knew that Captain Falk and his men had put off from the ship. It seemed
+very much as if he were trying to make the best of a bad bargain. But if,
+on the other hand, he was entirely sincere in his protestations, it might
+well be true that he did not dare come over openly to our side. The problem
+had so many faces that it fairly made me dizzy, so I abandoned it and tore
+open my clothes to examine the flesh wound on my shoulder.
+
+"Ay," I thought, when I saw where the musket-ball had cut me at close
+range, "that was a friendly shot, was it not?"
+
+Roger himself was not yet willing to let the matter fall so readily. His
+sharp questions stirred the man from Boston to one uneasy denial after
+another.
+
+"But I tell you, sir, I come over as quick as I could."
+
+Again Roger spoke caustically.
+
+"But I tell you, sir, I did. And what's more, I can tell you a lot of
+things you'd like to know. Perhaps you'd like to know--" He stopped short.
+
+Roger regarded him as if in doubt, but presently he said in a low voice,
+"All right! Say nothing of this to the others. I'll see you later."
+
+Captain Falk and his crew, meanwhile, had moved away almost unmolested.
+Their pikes and guns had held off the few natives who made a show of
+pursuing them, and the great majority of our allies were running riot on
+the ship, which was a sad sight when we turned to take account of the
+situation.
+
+Three natives were killed and two were wounded, not to mention my injured
+shoulder among our own casualties; and two members of the other party in
+the crew were sprawled in grotesque attitudes on the deck. Counting the one
+who was hit by a spear and who had fallen out of the boat, it meant that
+Falk had lost three dead, and if blood on the deck was any sign, others
+must have been badly slashed. In other words, our party was, numerically,
+almost the equal of his. Considering the man from Boston as on our side, we
+were seven to their eight. The lantern that we now lighted revealed more of
+the gruesome spectacle, and it made me feel sick to see that both the man
+from Boston and I were covered from head to foot with the gore in which we
+had been rolling; but to the natives the sight was a stupendous triumph;
+and the cook, when I next saw him, was walking down the deck, looking at
+the face of one dead man after another.
+
+By and by he came to me where, overcome by a wave of nausea, I had sat down
+on the deck with my back against the bulwark. "Dey ain't none of 'em
+Kipping," he said grimly. Then he saw my bleeding shoulder and instantly
+got down beside me. "You jest let dis yeh ol' nigger took a hand," he
+cried. "Ah's gwine fix you all up. You jest come along o' me!" And helping
+me to my feet, he led me to the galley, where once more he was supreme and
+lawful master.
+
+In no time at all he had a kettle of water on the stove, in which the coals
+of a good fire still lingered, and with a clean cloth he washed my wound so
+gently that I scarcely could believe his great, coarse hands were actually
+at work on me. "Dah you is," he murmured, bending over the red, shallow
+gash that the bullet had cut, "dah you is. Don' you fret. Ah's gwine git
+you all tied up clean an' han'some, yass, sah."
+
+The yells and cries of every description alarmed and agitated us both. It
+was far from reassuring to know that that mob of natives was ranging the
+ship at will.
+
+"Ef you was to ask me," Frank muttered, rolling his eyes till the whites
+gleamed starkly, "Ah's gwine tell you dis yeh ship is sottin', so to speak,
+on a bar'l of gunpowder. Yass, sah!"
+
+An islander uttered a shrill catcall just outside the galley and thrust his
+head and half his naked body in the door. He vanished again almost
+instantly, but Frank jumped and upset the kettle. "Yass, sah, you creepy
+ol' sarpint," he gasped. "Yass, sah, we's sottin' on a bar'l of gunpowder."
+
+I am convinced, as I look back on that night from the pinnacle of more than
+half a century, that not one man in ten thousand has ever spent one like
+it. Allied with a horde whose language we could not speak, we had boarded
+our own ship and now--mutineers, pirates, or loyal mariners, according to
+your point of view--we shared her possession with a mob of howling heathens
+whose goodwill depended on the whim of the moment, and who might at any
+minute, by slaughtering us out of hand, get for their own godless purposes
+the ship and all that was in her.
+
+The cook cautiously fingered the keen edge of his cleaver as we looked out
+and saw that dawn was brightening in the east.
+
+"Dat Falk, he say he gwine git us yet," the cook muttered. "Maybe so--maybe
+not. Maybe we ain't gwine last as long as dat."
+
+"All hands aft!"
+
+Frank and I looked at each other. The galley was as safe and comfortable as
+any place aboard ship and we were reluctant to leave it.
+
+"_All hands aft!_" came the call again.
+
+"Ah reckon," Frank said thoughtfully, "me and you better be gwine. When
+Mistah Hamlin he holler like dat, he want us."
+
+Light had come with amazing swiftness, and already we could see the deck
+from stem to stern without help of the torches, which still flamed and sent
+thin streamers of smoke drifting into the mist.
+
+As we emerged from the galley, I noticed that the after-hatch was half
+open. That in itself did not surprise me; stranger things than that had
+come to pass in the last hour or two; but when some one cautiously emerged
+from the hold, with a quick, sly glance at those on the quarter-deck, I'll
+confess that I was surprised. It was the man from Boston.
+
+Smiling broadly and turning his black rat-like eyes this way and that, the
+chief of our wild allies, who held a naked kris from which drops of blood
+were falling, stood beside Roger. Blodgett was at the wheel, nervously
+fingering the spokes; Neddie Benson stood behind him, obviously ill at
+ease, and Davie Paine, who had got from the cabin what few of his things
+were left there, to take them forward, was a little at one side. But the
+natives were swarming everywhere, aloft and alow, and we knew only too well
+that no small movable object would escape their thieving fingers.
+
+"Ef on'y dem yeh heathen don't took to butcherin'!" the cook muttered.
+
+The prophetic words were scarcely spoken when what we most feared came to
+pass. One of the islanders, by accident or design, bumped into Blodgett,--
+always erratic, never to be relied on in a crisis,--who, turning without a
+thought of the consequences, struck the man with his fist a blow that
+floored him, and flashed out his knife.
+
+That single spark threatened an explosion that would annihilate us. Spears
+enclosed us from all sides; krises leaped at our throats.
+
+"Come on, lads! Stand together," Blodgett shrieked.
+
+With a yell of terror the cook sprang to join the others, and bellowing in
+panic, swung his cleaver wildly.
+
+The man from Boston and Neddie Benson shrank back against the taffrail as a
+multitude of moving brown figures seemed to swarm about us. Then I saw
+Roger leap forward, his arms high in air, his hands extended.
+
+"Get back!" he cried, glancing at us over his shoulders.
+
+As all stopped and stared at him, he coolly turned to the chief and handed
+him his pistol, butt foremost. Was Roger mad, I wondered? He was the sanest
+man of all our crew. The chief gravely took the proffered weapon and looked
+at Blodgett, whose face was contorted with fear, and at the Malay, who by
+now was sitting up on deck blinking about him in a dazed way. Then he
+smiled and raised his hand and the points of the weapons fell.
+
+In truth I was nearly mad myself, for now it all struck me as funny and I
+laughed until I cried, and all the others looked at me, and soon the
+natives began to point and laugh themselves. I suppose I was hysterical,
+but it created a diversion and helped to save the day; and Neddie Benson
+and the man from Boston, whom Roger had sent below, returned soon with
+bolts of cloth and knives and pistols and threw them in a heap on the
+quarter-deck.
+
+Some word that I suppose meant gifts, went from lip to lip and our allies
+eagerly crowded around us.
+
+"Get behind me, men," Roger said in an undertone. "Whatever happens, guard
+the companionway. I think we're safe, but since by grace of Providence
+we're all here together, we'll take no chances that we can avoid."
+
+The first rays of sunlight shone on the heap of bright stuffs and polished
+metal, but the sun itself was no brighter than the face of the chief when
+Roger draped over him a length of bright cloth and presented him with a
+handsome knife. He threw back his head, laughing aloud, and strutted across
+the deck. Turning in grave farewell, he grasped his booty with one arm and,
+after a few sharp words to his men, swung himself down by the chains with
+the other. To man after man we gave gaudy cloths or knives or, when all
+the knives were given away, a cutlass or a gun; and when at last the only
+canoes in sight were speeding toward shore like comets with tails of red
+flannel and purple calico, we breathed deeply our relief.
+
+"Now, men," said Roger, "we have a hard morning's work in front of us.
+Cook, break out a cask of beef and a cask of bread, and get us something to
+eat. Davie, you stand watch and keep your eye out either for a native canoe
+or for any sign of Falk or his party. The rest of you--all except Lathrop--
+wash down the deck and sew those bodies up in a piece of old sail with
+plenty of ballast. Ben, you and I have a little job in front of us. Come
+into the cabin with me."
+
+I gladly followed him. He was as composed as if battle and death were all
+in the routine of a day at sea, and I was full of admiration for his
+coolness and courage.
+
+The cabin was in complete disorder, but comparatively few things had been
+stolen. Apparently not many of the natives had found their way thither.
+
+"Fortunately," Roger said, unlocking Captain Whidden's chest of which he
+had the key, "they've left the spare quadrant. We have instruments to
+navigate with, so, when all's said and done, I suppose we're lucky."
+
+He closed the chest and locked it again; then he took from his pocket a
+second key. "Benny, my lad," he said, "let's have a look at that one
+hundred thousand dollars in gold."
+
+Going into the captain's stateroom, we shut the door and knelt beside the
+iron safe. The key turned with difficulty.
+
+"It needs oil," Roger muttered, as he worked over it. "It turns as hard as
+if some one has been tinkering with it." By using both hands he forced it
+round and opened the door.
+
+The safe was empty.
+
+[Illustration: ]
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+IN WHICH WE REACH THE PORT OF OUR DESTINATION
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+FALK PROPOSES A TRUCE
+
+
+As we faced each other in amazed silence, we could hear the men working on
+deck and the sea rippling against the hull of the ship. I felt that strange
+sensation of mingled reality and unreality which comes sometimes in dreams,
+and I rather think that Roger felt it, too, for we turned simultaneously to
+look again into the iron safe. But again only its painted walls met our
+eyes.
+
+The gold actually was gone.
+
+Roger started up. "Now how did Falk manage that?" he cried. "I swear he
+hadn't time to open the safe. We took them absolutely by surprise--I could
+swear we did."
+
+I suggested that he might have hidden it somewhere else.
+
+"Not he," said Roger.
+
+"Would Kipping steal from Captain Falk?"
+
+"From Captain Falk!" Roger exclaimed. "If his mother were starving, he'd
+steal her last crust. How about the bunk?"
+
+We took the bunk apart and ripped open the mattress. We sounded the
+woodwork above and below. With knives we slit the cushion of Captain
+Whidden's great arm-chair, and pulled out the curled hair that stuffed it.
+We ransacked box, bag, cuddy, and stove; we forced our way into every
+corner of the cabin and the staterooms. But we found no trace of the lost
+money.
+
+It seemed like sacrilege to disturb little things that once had belonged
+to that upright gentleman, Captain Joseph Whidden. His pipe, his
+memorandum-book, and his pearl-handled penknife recalled him to my mind as
+I had seen him so many times of old, sitting in my father's drawing-room,
+with his hands folded on his knee and his firm mouth bent in a whimsical
+smile. I thought of my parents, of my sister and Roger, of all the old
+far-away life of Salem; I must have stood dreaming thus a long time when my
+eyes fell on Nathan Falk's blue coat, which he had thrown carelessly on the
+cabin table and had left there, and with a burst of anger I came back to
+affairs of the moment.
+
+"They've got it away, Benny," said Roger, soberly. "How or when I don't
+know, but there's no question that it's gone from the cabin. Come, let's
+clear away the disorder."
+
+As well as we could we put back the numerous things we had thrown about,
+and such litter as we could not replace we swept up. But wisps of hair
+still lay on the tables and the chairs, and feathers floated in the air
+like thistle-down. We had little time for housewifery.
+
+We found the others gathered round the galley, eating a hearty meal of salt
+beef, ship's bread, and coffee, at which we were right glad to join them.
+Roger had a way with the men that kept them from taking liberties, yet that
+enabled him to mingle with them on terms far more familiar than those of a
+ship's officer. I watched him as he sat down by Davie Paine, and grinned at
+the cook, and asked Neddie Benson how his courage was and laughed heartily
+at Blodgett who had spilled a cup of coffee down his shirt-front--yet in
+such a way that Blodgett was pleased by his friendliness rather than
+offended by his amusement. I suppose it was what we call "personality."
+Certainly Roger was a born leader. After our many difficulties we felt so
+jolly and so much at home,--all, that is, except the man from Boston, who
+sat apart from the rest and stared soberly across the long, slow seas,--
+that our little party on deck was merrier by far than many a Salem
+merrymaking before or since.
+
+I knew that Roger was deeply troubled by the loss of the money and I
+marveled at his self-control.
+
+Presently I saw something moving off the eastern point of the island.
+Thinking little of it, I watched it idly until suddenly it burst upon me
+that it was a ship's boat. With a start I woke from my dream and shouted,
+"Sail ho! Off the starboard bow!"
+
+In an instant our men were on their feet, staring at the newcomer. In all
+the monotonous expanse of shining, silent ocean only the boat and the
+island and the tiny sails of a junk which lay hull down miles away, were to
+be seen. But the boat, which now had rounded the point, was approaching
+steadily.
+
+"Ben, lay below to the cabin and fetch up muskets, powder, and balls,"
+Roger cried sharply. "Lend a hand, Davie, and bring back all the pikes and
+cutlasses you can carry. You, cook, clear away the stern-chasers and stand
+by to load them the minute the powder's up the companionway. Blodgett, you
+do the same by the long gun. You, Neddie, bear a hand with me to trice up
+the netting!"
+
+Spilling food, cups, pans, and kids in confusion on the deck, we sprang to
+do as we were bid. In the sternsheets of the approaching boat we could make
+out at a distance the slim form of Captain Nathan Falk.
+
+The rain had stopped long since, and the hot sun shining from a cloudless
+sky was rapidly burning off the last vestige of the night mist as Captain
+Falk's boat came slowly toward us under a white flag. A ground-swell gave
+it a leisurely motion and the men approached so cautiously that their oars
+seemed scarcely more than to dip in and out of the water.
+
+With double-charged cannon, with loaded muskets ready at hand, and with
+pikes and cutlasses laid out on deck, one for each man, where we could
+snatch them up as soon as we had spent our first fire, we grinned from
+behind the nettings at our erstwhile shipmates. Tables had turned with a
+vengeance since we had rowed away from the ship so short a time before.
+They now were a sad-looking lot of men, some of them with bandages on their
+limbs or round their heads, all of them disheveled, weary, and unkempt. But
+they approached with an air of dignity, which Falk tried to keep up by
+calling with a grand fling of his hand and his head, "Mr. Hamlin, we come
+to parley under a flag of truce."
+
+I think we really were impressed for a moment. His face was pale, and he
+had a blood-stained rag tied round his forehead, so that he looked very
+much as if he were a wounded hero returning after a brave fight to arrange
+terms of an honorable peace. But the cook, who heartily disapproved of
+admitting the boat within gunshot, shattered any such illusion that we may
+have entertained.
+
+"Mah golly!" he exclaimed in a voice audible to every man in both parties,
+"ef dey ain't done h'ist up cap'n's unde'-clothes foh a flag of truce!"
+
+The remark came upon us so suddenly and we were all so keyed up that,
+although it seems flat enough to tell about it now, then it struck us as
+irresistibly funny and we laughed until tears started from our eyes. I
+heard Blodgett's cat-yowl of glee, Davie Paine's deep guffaw, Neddie
+Benson's shrill cackle of delight. But when, to clear my eyes, I wiped away
+my tears, the men in the other boat were glaring at us in glum and angry
+silence.
+
+"Ah, it's funny is it?" said Falk, and his voice me think of the times when
+he had abused Bill Hayden. "Laugh, curse you, laugh! Well, that's all
+right. There's no law against laughing. I've got a proposition to put up to
+you. You've had your little fling and a costly one it's like to be. You've
+mutinied and unlawfully confined the master of the ship, and for that
+you're liable for a fine of one thousand dollars and five years in prison.
+You've usurped the command of a vessel on the high seas unlawfully and by
+force, and for that you're liable to a fine of two thousand dollars and ten
+years in prison. Think about that, some o' you men that haven't a hundred
+dollars in the world. The law'll strip and break you. But if that ain't
+enough, we've got evidence to convict you in every court of the United
+States of America of being pirates, felons, and robbers, and the punishment
+for that is death. Think of that, you men."
+
+Falk lowered his head until his red scarf, which he had knotted about his
+throat, made the ghastly pallor of his face seem even more chalky than it
+was, and thrust his chin forward and leveled at us the index finger of his
+right hand. The slowly rolling boat was so near us now that as we waited to
+see what he would say next we could see his hand tremble.
+
+"Now, men," he continued, "you've had your little fling, and that's the
+price you'll have to pay the piper. I'll get you, never you fear. Ah, by
+the good Lord's help, I'll see you swinging from a frigate's yard-arm yet,
+unless"--he stopped and glared at us significantly--"unless you do like I'm
+going to tell you.
+
+"You've had your fling and there's a bad day of reckoning coming to you,
+don't you forget it. But if you drop all this nonsense now, and go forward
+where you belong and work the ship like good seamen and swear on the Book
+to have no more mutinous talk, I'll forgive you everything and see that no
+one prosecutes you for all you've done so far. How about it? Nothing could
+be handsomer than that."
+
+"Oh, you always was a smooth-tongued scoundrel" Blodgett, just behind me,
+murmured under his breath.
+
+The men in the two parties looked at each other in silence for a moment,
+and if ever I had distrusted Captain Falk, I distrusted him four times more
+when I saw the mild, sleek smile on Kipping's face. It was reassuring to
+see the gleam in black Frank's eyes as he fingered the edge of his cleaver.
+
+I turned eagerly to Roger, upon whom we waited unanimously for a reply.
+
+"Yes, that's very handsome of you," he said reflectively. "But how do we
+know you'll do all that you promise?"
+
+Falk's white face momentarily lighted. I thought that for an instant his
+eyes shone like a tiger's. But he answered quietly, "Ain't my word good?"
+
+"Why, a _gentleman's_ word is always good security."
+
+There was just enough accent on the word "gentleman" to puzzle me. The
+remark sounded innocent enough, certainly, and yet the stress--if stress
+was intended--made it biting sarcasm. Obviously the men in the boat were
+equally in doubt whether to take offense or to accept the statement in good
+faith.
+
+"Well, you have my word," said Falk at last.
+
+
+"Yes, we have your word. But there's one other thing to be settled. How
+about the owners' money?"
+
+For a moment Falk seemed disconcerted, and I, thinking now that Roger was
+merely badgering him, smiled with satisfaction. But Falk answered the
+question after only brief hesitation, and Roger's next words plunged me
+deep in a sea of doubt.
+
+"Why, I shall guard the owners' money with all possible care, Mr. Hamlin,
+and expend it in their best interests," said Falk.
+
+"If that's the case," said Roger, "come alongside."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+INCLUDING A CROSS-EXAMINATION
+
+
+Falk tried, I was certain, to conceal a smile of joy at Roger's simplicity,
+and I saw that others in the boat were averting their faces. Also I saw
+that they were shifting their weapons to have them more readily available.
+
+Our own men, on the contrary, were remonstrating audibly, and to my lasting
+shame I joined them.
+
+A queer expression appeared on Roger's face and he looked at us as if
+incredulous. I suddenly perceived that our rebellious attitude hurt him
+bitterly. He had led us so bravely through all our recent difficulties! And
+now, when success seemed assured, we manifested in return doubt and
+disloyalty! I literally hung my head. The others were abashed and silent,
+but I knew that my own defection was more contemptible by far than theirs,
+and had Roger reproached me sharply, I might have felt better for it.
+Instead, he spoke without haste or anger in a voice pitched so low that
+Falk could not possibly overhear him.
+
+"We simply _have_ to hold together, men. All to the gangway, now, and stand
+by for orders."
+
+That was all he said, but it was enough. Thoroughly ashamed of ourselves,
+we followed him to the gangway whither the boat was coming slowly.
+
+Roger assumed an air of neutral welcome as he reached for the bow of the
+pinnace; but to us behind him he whispered sharply, "Stand ready, all
+hands, with muskets and pikes."
+
+"Now, then, Captain Falk," he cried, "hand over the money first. We'll stow
+it safe on board."
+
+"Come, come," Falk replied. "Belay that talk." He was
+standing ready to climb on deck.
+
+"The money first," said Roger coolly.
+
+Suddenly he tried to hook the bow of the pinnace, but missed it as the
+pinnace dipped in the trough.
+
+The rest of us, waiting breathlessly, for the first time comprehended
+Roger's strategy.
+
+Falk looked up at him angrily. "That'll get you nowhere," he retorted.
+"Come, stand away, or so help me, I'll see you hanged anyhow."
+
+Roger smiled at him coldly. "The word of a gentleman? The money first,
+Captain Falk."
+
+"Well, if you are so stupid that you haven't discovered the truth yet, I
+haven't the money."
+
+"Where is the money?"
+
+"In the safe in the cabin, as you very well know," replied Falk.
+
+"You lie!" Roger responded.
+
+With a ripping oath, Captain Falk whipped out his pistol.
+
+"You lie!" Roger cried again, hotly. "Put down that pistol or I'll blow you
+to hell. Stand by, boys. We'll show them!"
+
+Though we were fewer than they, we had them at a tremendous disadvantage,
+for we were protected by the bulwarks and could pour our musket-fire into
+the open boat at will, and in a battle of cutlasses and pikes our advantage
+would be even greater.
+
+"Don't a flag of truce give us no protection?" Kipping asked in that
+accursedly mild voice--I could not hear it without thinking of poor Bill
+Hayden, and to the others, they told me later, it brought the same bitter
+memory.
+
+
+"How long since Cap'n Falk's ol' unde' shirt done be a p'tection?" muttered
+the cook grimly.
+
+"Yes, laugh! Laugh, you black baboon! Laugh, you silly little fool,
+Lathrop!" Falk yelled. "I'll have you laughing another time one of these
+days. Give way men! We'll have out their haslets yet."
+
+A hundred feet from the ship, the men rested on their oars, and Falk put on
+a very different manner. "Roger Hamlin," he cried, "you ain't going to send
+us away, are you?"
+
+I was astounded. As long as I had known Falk, I had never realized how many
+different faces the man could assume at the shortest notice. But Roger
+seemed not at all surprised. "Yes," he said, shortly, "we're going to send
+you away, you black-hearted scoundrel."
+
+"Good God! We'll perish!"
+
+Although obvious retorts were many, Roger made no reply.
+
+Now Kipping spoke up mildly and innocently:--
+
+"What'll we do? We can't land--the Malays was waiting for us on shore with
+knives, all ready to cut our throats. We can't go to sea like this. What'll
+we do?"
+
+"Supposing," cried old Blodgett, sarcastically, "supposing you row back to
+Salem. It's only three thousand miles or more. You'll find it a pleasant
+voyage, I'm sure, and you'd ought to run into enough Ladronesers and Malays
+to make it interesting along the way."
+
+"Ain't we human?" Kipping whined, as if trying to wring pity from even
+Blodgett. "Ain't you going at least to give us a keg o' water and some
+bread?"
+
+"If you're not out of gunshot in five minutes," Roger cried, "I'll train
+the long gun and blow you clean out of water."
+
+Without more ado they rowed slowly away, growing smaller and smaller, until
+at last they passed out of sight round the point.
+
+"Ah me," sighed Neddie Benson, "I'm glad they're gone. It's funny Falk
+ain't quite a light man nor yet a real dark man."
+
+"_Gone_!" Davie repeated ominously. "_I_ wish they was gone." He looked up
+at the furled sails. "They ain't--and neither is we."
+
+"There's work to be done," said Roger, "and we must be about it. Leave the
+nets as they are. Stack the muskets in the waist, pile the pikes handy by
+the deckhouse, and all lay aft. We'd best have a few words together before
+we begin."
+
+A moment later, as I was busy with the pikes, Roger came to me and
+murmured, "There's something wrong afoot. The after-hatch has been pried
+off."
+
+I noticed the hatch once more the next time I passed it, and I remembered
+seeing the man from Boston emerge from the hold. But there was so much else
+to be attended to that it was a long, long time before I thought of it
+again.
+
+When we had done as Roger told us, we gathered round him where he waited,
+leaning against the cabin, with his hands in his pockets.
+
+"We're all in the same boat together, men," he began. "We knew what the
+chances were when we took them. If you wish to have it so, in the eyes of
+the law we're pirates and mutineers, and since Falk seems to have got away
+with what money there was on board, things may go hard with us. _But_--" he
+spoke the word with stern emphasis--"_but_ we've acted for the best, and I
+think there's no one here wants to try to square things up by putting Falk
+in command again. How about it?"
+
+"Square things up, is it?" cried Blodgett. "The dirty villain would have us
+hanged at the nearest gallows for all his buttery words."
+
+"Exactly!" Roger threw back his head. "And when we get to Salem, I can
+promise you there's no man here but will be better off for doing as he's
+done so far."
+
+"But whar's all dat money gone?" the cook demanded unexpectedly.
+
+"I don't know," said Roger.
+
+"What! Ain' dat yeh money heah?"
+
+"No."
+
+At that moment my eye chanced to fall on the man from Boston, who was
+looking off at the island as if he had no interest whatever in our
+conversation. The circumstances under which he had stayed with us were so
+strange and his present preoccupation was so carefully assumed, that I was
+suddenly exceedingly suspicious of him, although when I came to examine the
+matter closely, I could find no very definite grounds for it.
+
+Blodgett was watching him, too, and I think that Roger followed our gaze
+for suddenly he cried, "You there!" in a voice that brought the man from
+Boston to his feet like the snap of a whip.
+
+"Yes, sir! Yes, sir!" he replied briskly.
+
+"What are you doing here, anyway?" Roger demanded. The fellow, who had
+begun to assume as many airs and as much self-confidence as if he had been
+one of our own party from the very first, was sadly disconcerted. "Why I
+come over to your side first chance I had," he replied with an aggrieved
+air.
+
+"What were you doing in the cabin when the natives were running all over
+the ship?"
+
+The five of us, startled by the quick, sharp questions, looked keenly at
+the man from Boston. But he, recovering his self-possession, replied coolly
+enough, "I was just a-keeping watch so they wouldn't steal--I kept them
+from running off with the quadrant."
+
+"Keeping watch so _nobody'd_ steal, I suppose," said Roger.
+
+"Yes, sir! Yes, sir! That's it exactly."
+
+Suddenly my mind leaped back to the night when Bill Hayden had died, and
+the man from Boston had made that cryptic remark, to which I called
+attention long since. "He said he could tell something, Roger," I burst
+out. But Roger silenced me with a glance.
+
+Turning on the fellow again, he said, "If I find that you are lying to me,
+I'll shoot you where you stand. What do you know about who killed Captain
+Whidden?"
+
+For once the fellow was taken completely off his guard. He glanced around
+as if he wished to run away, but there was no escape. He saw only hostile
+faces.
+
+"What do you know about who killed Captain Whidden?"
+
+"Mr. Kipping killed him," the fellow gasped, startled out of whatever
+reticence he may have intended to maintain. "Yes, sir! Yes, sir!"
+
+"Do you expect me to believe that Kipping shot the captain? If you lie to
+me--" Roger drew his pistol. By eyes and voice he held the man in a
+hypnosis of terror.
+
+"He did! I swear he did. Don't shoot me, sir! I'm telling you the very
+gospel truth. He cursed awful and said--don't point that pistol at me, sir!
+I swear I'll tell the truth!--'Mr. Thomas is as good as done for,' he said.
+'There's only one man between us and a hundred thousand dollars in gold.'
+And Falk--Kipping was talking to Falk low-like and didn't know I was
+anywhere about--and Falk says, 'No, that's too much.' Then he says,
+wild-like, 'Shoot--go on and shoot.' Then Kipping laughs and says, 'So
+you've got a little gumption, have you?' and he shot Captain Whidden and
+killed him. Don't point that pistol at _me_, sir! I didn't do it."
+
+Roger had managed the situation well. His sudden and entirely unexpected
+attack had got from the man a story that a month of ordinary
+cross-examinations might not have elicited; for although the fellow had
+volunteered to tell all he knew, his manner convinced me that under other
+circumstances he would have told no more than he had to. Also he had
+admitted being in the cabin while the natives were roaming over the ship!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+AN ATTEMPT TO PLAY ON OUR SYMPATHY
+
+
+For the time being we let the matter drop and, launching a quarter-boat for
+work around the ship, turned our attention to straightening out the rigging
+and the running gear so that we could get under way at the earliest
+possible moment. Twice natives came aboard, and a number of canoes now and
+then appeared in the distance; but we were left on the whole pretty much to
+our own devices, and we had great hopes of tripping anchor in a few hours
+at the latest.
+
+Roger meanwhile got out the quadrant and saw that it was adjusted to take
+an observation at the first opportunity; for there was no doubt that by
+faulty navigation or, more probably, by malicious intent, Falk had brought
+us far astray from the usual routes across the China Sea.
+
+Occasionally bands of natives would come out from shore in their canoes and
+circle the ship, but we gave them no further encouragement to come aboard,
+and in the course of the morning Roger divided us anew into anchor watches.
+All in all we worked as hard, I think, as I ever have worked, but we were
+so well contented with the outcome of our adventures that there was almost
+no grumbling at all.
+
+When at last I went below I was dead tired. Every nerve and weary muscle
+throbbed and ached, and flinging myself on my bunk, I fell instantly into
+the deepest sleep. When I woke with the echo of the call, "All hands on
+deck," still lingering in my ears, it seemed as if I scarcely had closed my
+eyes; but while I hesitated between sleeping and waking, the call sounded
+again with a peremptory ring that brought me to my feet in spite of my
+fatigue.
+
+"All hands on deck! Tumble up! Tumble up!" It was the third summons.
+
+When we staggered forth, blinded by the glaring sunlight, the other watch
+already had snatched up muskets and pikes and all were staring to the
+northeast. Thence, moving very slowly indeed, once more came the boat.
+
+Falk was sitting down now; his chin rested on his hands and his face was
+ghastly pale; the bandage round his head appeared bloodier than ever and
+dirtier. The men, too, were white and woe-begone, and Kipping was scowling
+disagreeably.
+
+It seemed shameful to take arms against human beings in such a piteous
+plight, but we stood with our muskets cocked and waited for them to speak
+first.
+
+"Haven't you men hearts?" Falk cried when he had come within earshot. "Are
+you going to sit there aboard ship with plenty of food and drink and see
+your shipmates a-dying of starvation and thirst?"
+
+The men rested on their oars while he called to us; but when we did not
+answer, he motioned with his hand and they again rowed toward us with
+short, feeble strokes.
+
+"All we ask is food and water," Falk said, when he had come so near that we
+could see the lines on the faces of the men and the worn, hunted look in
+their eyes.
+
+They had laid their weapons on the bottom of the boat, and there was
+nothing warlike about them now to remind us of the bloody fight they had
+waged against us. With a boy's short memory of the past and short sight for
+the future, I was ready to take the poor fellows aboard and to forgive them
+everything; and though it undoubtedly was foolish of me, I am not ashamed
+of my generous weakness. They seemed so utterly miserable! But fortunately
+wiser counsels prevailed.
+
+"You ain't really going to leave us to perish of hunger and thirst, are
+you?" Falk cried. "We can't go ashore, even to get water. Those cursed
+heathen are laying to butcher us. Guns pointed at friends and shipmates is
+no kind of a 'welcome home.'"
+
+"Give us the money, then--" Roger began.
+
+The cook interrupted him in an undertone that was plainly audible though
+probably not intended for all ears.
+
+"Yeee-ah! Heah dat yeh man discribblate! He don't like guns pointed at
+shipmates, hey? How about guns pointed at a cap'n when he ain't lookin'?
+Hey?"
+
+Falk obviously overheard the cook's muttered sally and was disconcerted by
+it; and the murmur of assent with which our men received it convinced me
+that it went a long way to reinforce their determination to withstand the
+other party at any cost whatsoever.
+
+After hesitating perceptibly, Falk decided to ignore it. "All we want's
+bread and water," he whined.
+
+"Give us the money, then," Roger repeated, "and we'll see that you don't
+starve." His voice was calm and incisive. He absolutely controlled the
+situation.
+
+Falk threw up his hands in a gesture of despair. "But we ain't got the
+money. So help me God, we ain't got a cent of it."
+
+"Hand over the money," Roger repeated, "and we'll give you food and water."
+He pointed at the quarter-boat, which swung at the end of a long painter.
+"Come no nearer. Put the money in that boat and we'll haul it up."
+
+"We _ain't got the money_, I tell you. I swear on my immortal soul, we
+ain't got it." Falk seemed to be on the point of weeping. He was so weak
+and white!
+
+When Roger did not reply, I turned to look at him. There was a thoughtful
+expression on his face, and following the direction of his eyes, my own
+gaze rested on the face of the man from Boston. He was smiling. But when
+he saw us looking at him, he stopped and changed color.
+
+"I believe you," Roger declared suddenly. "You'll have to keep your
+distance or I'll blow your boat to pieces; but if you obey orders, I'll
+help you out as far as a few days' supply of food will go. Cook, haul in
+that boat and put half a hundredweight of ship's bread and four buckets of
+water in it. That'll keep 'em for a while."
+
+"You ain't gwine to feed dat yeh Kipping, sah, is you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The cook turned in silence to do Roger's bidding.
+
+Twice the man from Boston started forward as if to speak. The motion was so
+slight that it almost escaped me, but the second time I was sure that I
+really had detected such an impulse, and at the same moment I perceived
+that Falk, whose fingers were twitching nervously, was shooting an angry
+glance at him. This byplay to a considerable extent distracted my
+attention; but when the fellow finally did get up courage to speak, I saw
+that the eyes of every man in Falk's boat were on him and that Kipping had
+clenched both fists.
+
+"Stop!" the man from Boston cried. "Stop!" He stepped toward Roger with one
+hand raised.
+
+Roger soberly turned on him. "Be still," he said.
+
+"But, sir--"
+
+"Be still!"
+
+"But, sir, there ain't no--"
+
+Certainly as far as we could see, the man's feverish persistence was arrant
+insubordination. What Roger would have done we had no time to learn, for
+Blodgett, bursting with zeal for our common cause, grasped him by the
+throat and choked his words into a gurgle. A queer expression of spite and
+hatred passed over the man's face, and when he squirmed away from
+Blodgett's grip I saw that he was muttering to himself as he rubbed his
+bruised neck. But the others were paying him no attention and he presently
+folded his arms with an air that continued to trouble me and stood apart
+from the rest.
+
+And Falk and Kipping and all their men now were grinning broadly!
+
+The water slopped over the edges of the buckets and wet some of the bread
+as the cook pushed the boat out toward Falk; but the men in the pinnace
+watched it eagerly, and when it floated to the end of the painter, they
+clutched for it so hastily that they almost upset the precious buckets.
+
+When they had got it, they looked at each other and laughed and slapped
+their legs and laughed again in an uproarious, almost maudlin mirth that we
+could not understand.
+
+We covered them with our muskets lest they try to seize the boat, which I
+firmly believe they had contemplated before they realized how closely we
+were watching them, and we smiled to see them cram their mouths with bread
+and pass the buckets from hand to hand. When they had finished their
+inexplicable laughter, they ate like animals and drew new strength and
+courage from their food. Though Falk was still white under his bloody
+bandage, his voice was stronger.
+
+"I'll remember this," he said. "Maybe I'll give you a day or two of grace
+before you swing. Oh, you can laugh at me now, you white-livered sons of
+sea-cooks, but the day's coming when you'll sing another song to pay your
+piper."
+
+He looked round and laughed at his own men, and again they all laughed as
+if he had said something clever, and he and Kipping exchanged glances.
+
+"They ain't found the gold," he caustically remarked to Kipping. "We'll see
+what we shall see."
+
+"Ay, we'll see," Kipping returned, mildly. "We'll see. It'll be fun to see
+it, too, won't it, sir?"
+
+It was all very silly, and we, of course, had nothing to say in return; so
+we watched them, with our muskets peeping over the bulwark and with the
+long gun and the stern-chasers cleared in case of trouble, and in
+undertones we kept up an exchange of comments.
+
+After whispering among themselves, the men in the boat once more began to
+row toward us. Singularly enough they showed no sign of the exhaustion that
+a little before had seemed so painful. It slowly dawned upon me that their
+air of misery had been nothing more than a cheap trick to play upon our
+compassion. We watched them suspiciously, but they now assumed a frank
+manner, which they evidently hoped would put us off our guard.
+
+"Now you men listen to me," said Falk. "After all, what's the use of
+behaving this way? You're just getting yourselves into trouble with the
+law. We can send you to the gallows for this little spree, and what's more
+we're going to do it--unless, that is, unless you come round sensible and
+call it all off. Now what do you say? Why don't you be reasonable? You take
+us on board and we'll use you right and hush all this up as best we can.
+What do you say?"
+
+"What do we say?" said Roger, "We say that bread and water have gone to
+your head. You were singing another time a while back."
+
+"Oh well, we _were_ a little down in the mouth then. But we're feeling a
+sight better now. Come, ain't our plan reasonable?"
+
+All the time they were rowing slowly nearer to the ship.
+
+"Mistah Falk, O Mistah Falk!"
+
+"Well?" Falk received the cook's interruption with an ill temper that made
+the darkey's eyes roll with joy.
+
+"Whar you git dat bootiful head-piece?"
+
+
+A flush darkened Falk's pale face under the bandage, and with what dignity
+he could muster, he ignored our snickers.
+
+"What do you say?" he cried to Roger. "Evidently you haven't found the
+money yet."
+
+To us Roger said in an undertone, "Hold your fire." To Falk he
+replied clearly, "You black-hearted villain, if you show your face in a
+Christian port you'll go to the gallows for abetting the cold-blooded
+murder of an able officer and an honorable gentleman, Captain Joseph
+Whidden. Quid that over a while and stow your tales of piracy and mutiny.
+Back water, you! Keep off!"
+
+Here was no subtle insinuation. Falk was stopped in his tracks by the flat
+statement. He had a dazed, frightened look. But Kipping, who had kept
+himself in the background up to this point, now assumed command.
+
+"Them's bad words," he said mildly, coldly. "Bad words. _But_--" he
+slightly raised his voice--"we ain't a-goin' to eat 'em. Not we." All at
+once he let out a yell that rang shrilly far over the water. "At 'em, men!
+At 'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull! Out pikes and cutlasses! Take
+'em by storm! Slash the netting and go over the side."
+
+"Hold your fire,"--Roger repeated,--"one minute--till I give the word."
+
+My heart was pounding at my ribs. I was breathing in fast gulps. With my
+thumb on the hammer of the musket, I gave one glance to the priming, and
+half raised it to my shoulder.
+
+From the bottom of the boat Falk's men had snatched up the weapons that
+hitherto they had kept out of sight. I had no time then to wonder why they
+did not shoot; afterwards we agreed that they probably were so short of
+powder and balls that they dared not expend any except in gravest
+emergency. Kipping was standing as they rowed, and so fiercely now did they
+ply their oars, casting to the winds every pretence of weakness, that the
+boat rocked from side to side.
+
+"At 'em!" Kipping snarled. "We'll show 'em! We'll show'em!"
+
+"Hold your fire, men," said Roger the third time. "I'll wing that bird."
+And aiming deliberately, he shot.
+
+The report of his musket rang out sharply and was followed by a groan.
+Kipping clutched his thigh with both hands and fell. The men stopped rowing
+and the boat, gradually losing way, veered in a half circle and lay
+broadside toward us. In the midst of the confusion aboard it, I saw Kipping
+sitting up and cursing in a way that chilled my blood. "Oh," he moaned,
+"I'll get you yet! I'll get you yet!" Then some one in the boat returned a
+single shot that buried itself in our bulwark.
+
+"Yeeeehaha! Got Kipping!" the cook cackled. "He got Kipping!"
+
+"Now then," cried Roger, "bear off. We've had enough of you. If ever again
+you come within gunshot of this ship, we'll shoot so much lead into you
+that the weight will sink you. It's only a leg wound, Kipping. I was
+careful where I aimed."
+
+In a disorderly way the men began to pull out of range, but still we could
+hear Kipping shrieking a stream of oaths and maledictions, and now Falk
+stood up and shook his fist at us and yelled with as much semblance of
+dignity as he could muster, "I'll see you yet, all seven of you, I'll see
+you a-swinging one after another from the game yard-arm!" Then, to our
+amazement, one of them whispered to the others behind his hand, and they
+all began to laugh again as if they had played some famous joke on us.
+
+Instead of going toward the island, they rowed out into the ocean. We could
+not understand it. Surely they would not try to cross the China Sea in an
+open boat! Were they so afraid of the natives?
+
+Still we could hear Kipping, faintly now, bawling wrath and blasphemy. We
+could see Captain Falk shaking his fist at us, and very clearly we could
+hear his faint voice calling, "I'll sack that ship, so help me! We'll see
+then what's become of the money."
+
+Where in heaven's name could they be going? Suddenly the answer came to us.
+Beyond them in the farthest offing were the tiny sails of the almost
+becalmed junk. They were rowing toward it. Eight mariners from a Christian
+land!
+
+In that broad expanse of land and sea and sky, the only moving object was
+the boat bearing Captain Falk and his men, which minute after minute
+labored across the gently tossing sea.
+
+Already the monsoon was weakening. The winds were variable, and for the
+time being scarce a breath of air was stirring.
+
+From the masthead we watched the boat grow smaller and smaller until it
+seemed no bigger than the point of a pin. The men were rowing with short,
+slow strokes. They may have gone eight or ten miles before darkness closed
+in upon them and blotted them out, and they must have got very near to the
+junk.
+
+The moon, rising soon after sunset, flooded the world with a pale light
+that made the sea shine like silver and made the island appear like a dark,
+low shadow. But of the boat and the junk it revealed nothing.
+
+The cook and Blodgett and I were talking idly on the fore hatch when
+faintly, but so distinctly that we could not mistake it, we heard far off
+the report of a gun.
+
+"Listen!" cried Blodgett.
+
+It came again and then again.
+
+The cook laid his hand on my shoulder. "Boy," he gasped out, "don' you heah
+dat yeh screechin'?"
+
+"No," said I.
+
+"Listen!"
+
+We sat for a long time silent, and presently we heard one more very distant
+gunshot.
+
+Neither Blodgett nor I had heard anything else, but the cook insisted that
+he had heard clearly the sound of some one far off shrieking and wailing in
+the night. "Ah heah dat yeh noise, yass, sah. Ah ain't got none of dem
+yamalgamations what heahs what ain't."
+
+He was so big and black and primitive, and his great ears spread so far out
+from his head, that he reminded me of some wild beast. Certainly he had a
+wild beast's keen ears.
+
+But now Blodgett raised his hand. "Here's wind," he said.
+
+And wind it was, a fresh breeze that seemed to gather up the waning
+strength of the light airs that had been playing at hide and seek with our
+ropes and canvas.
+
+At daybreak, cutting the cable and abandoning the working bower, we got
+under way on the remainder of our voyage to China, bearing in a generally
+northwesterly course to avoid the dangerous waters lying directly between
+us and the port of our destination.
+
+As we hauled at halyard and sheet and brace, and sprang quickly about at
+Roger's bidding, I found no leisure to watch the dawn, nor did I think of
+aught save the duties of the moment, which in some ways was a blessed
+relief; but I presently became aware that David Paine, who seemed able to
+work without thought, had stopped and was staring intently across the heavy
+seas that went rolling past us. Then, suddenly, he cried in his deep voice,
+"Sail ho!"
+
+Hazily, in the silver light that intervened between moonset and sunrise, we
+saw a junk with high poop and swinging batten sails bearing across our
+course. She took the seas clumsily, her sails banging as she pitched, and
+we gathered at the rail to watch her pass.
+
+"See there, men!" old Blodgett cried.
+
+He pointed his finger at the strange vessel. We drew closer and stared
+incredulously.
+
+On the poop of the junk, beside the cumbersome rudder windlass, leaning
+nonchalantly against the great carved rail, were Captain Nathan Falk and
+Chief Mate Kipping. That the slow craft could not cross our bows, they saw
+as well as we. Indeed, I question if they cared a farthing whether they
+sighted us that day or not. But they and their men, who gathered forward to
+stare sullenly as we drew near, shook fists and once more shouted curses. I
+could see them distinctly, Falk and Kipping and the carpenter and the
+steward and the sail-maker and the rest--angry, familiar faces.
+
+When we had swept by them, running before the wind, some one called after
+us in a small, far-off voice, "We'll see you yet in Sunda Strait."
+
+There was a commotion on the deck of the junk and Blodgett declared that
+Falk had hit a man.
+
+Were they changing their time for some reason that they did not want us to
+suspect? _Did they really wish to cut us off on our return?_
+
+
+Speculating about the fate of the yellow mariners who once had manned those
+clumsy sails, and about what scenes of bloody cruelty there must have been
+when those eight mad desperadoes attacked the ancient Chinese vessel, we
+sailed away and left them in their pirated junk. But I imagined, even when
+the old junk was hull down beyond the horizon, that I could hear an angry
+voice calling after us.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+WE REACH WHAMPOA, BUT NOT THE END OF OUR TROUBLES
+
+
+We were only seven men to work that ship, and after all these years I
+marvel at our temerity. Time and again the cry "All hands" would come down
+the hatch and summon the three of us from below to make sail, or reef, or
+furl, or man the braces. Weary and almost blind with sleep, we would
+stagger on deck and pull and haul, or would swarm aloft and strive to cope
+with the sails. The cook, and even Roger, served tricks at the wheel, turn
+and turn about with the rest of us; and for three terrible weeks we forced
+ourselves to the sheets and halyards, day and night, when we scarcely could
+hold our eyes open or bend our stiffened fingers.
+
+A Divine Providence must have watched over us during the voyage and have
+preserved us from danger; for though at that season bad storms are by no
+means unknown, the weather remained settled and fine. With clear water
+under our keel we passed shoal and reef and low-lying island. Now we saw a
+Tonquinese trader running before the wind, a curious craft, with one mast
+and a single sail bent to a yard at the head and stiffened by bamboo sprits
+running from luff to leech; now a dingy nondescript junk; now in the offing
+a fleet of proas, which caused us grave concern. But in all our passage
+only one event was really worth noting.
+
+When we were safely beyond London Reefs and the Fiery Cross, we laid our
+course north by east to pass west of Macclesfield Bank. All was going as
+well as we had dared expect, so willing was every man of our little
+company, except possibly the man from Boston, whom I suspected of a
+tendency to shirk, when late one evening the cook came aft with a very long
+face.
+
+"Well," said Roger, his eyes a-twinkle. "What's wrong in the galley,
+doctor?"
+
+"Yass, sah, yass, sah! S'pose, sah, you don't' know dah's almost no mo'
+wateh foh to drink, sah."
+
+"What's that you say?"
+
+"Yass, sah, yass, sah, we done share up with dat yeh Kipping and dah ain't
+no mo' to speak of at all, sah."
+
+It was true. The casks below decks were empty. In the casks already broken
+out there was enough for short rations to last until we made port, so our
+predicament as yet was by no means desperate; but we remembered the
+laughter of Falk and his men, and we were convinced that they knew the
+trick they played when they persuaded us to divide the ship's bread and
+water. By what mishap or mismanagement the supply of food had fallen
+short--there had been abundant opportunity for either--we were never to
+learn; but concerning the water-supply and Falk's duplicity, we were very
+soon enlightened.
+
+"Our friend from Boston," Roger said slowly, when the cook had gone, "seems
+to have played us double. We'll have him below, Ben, and give him a chance
+to explain."
+
+I liked the fellow less than ever when he came into the cabin. He had a
+certain triumphant air that consorted ill with his trick of evading one's
+eyes. He came nervously, I thought; but to my surprise Roger's caustic
+accusal seemed rather to put him at ease than to disconcert him further.
+
+"And so," Roger concluded, after stating the case in no mincing terms, "you
+knew us to be short of water, yet you deliberately neglected to warn us."
+
+"Didn't I try to speak, sir? Didn't you cut me off, sir?"
+
+Roger looked at him gravely. Although the fellow flinched, he was telling
+the truth. In justice we had to admit that Roger had given him no hearing.
+
+"Ay, and that skinny old money-chaser tried to throttle me," he continued.
+"Falk lay off that island only because we needed water. Ay, we all knew we
+needed it--Falk and all of us. But them murderin' natives was after our
+heart's blood whenever we goes ashore, just because Chips and Kipping
+drills a few bullet-holes in some of 'em. I knew what Falk was after when
+he asks you for water, sir. The scuttlebutts with water in 'em was on deck
+handy, and most of them below was empty where you wa'n't likely to trouble
+'em for a while yet. He see how't would work out. Wasn't I going to tell
+you, even though he killed me for it, until you cut me off and that 'un
+choked me? It helps take the soreness--it--I tried to tell you, sir."
+
+In petty spite, the fellow had committed himself, along with the rest of
+us, to privation at the very least. Yet he had a defense of a kind,
+contemptible though it was, and Roger let him go.
+
+It was a weary voyage; but all things have an end, and in ten days we had
+left Helen Shoal astern. Now we saw many junks and small native craft,
+which we viewed with uncomfortable suspicion, for though our cannon were
+double-charged and though loaded muskets were stacked around the
+mizzenmast, we were very, very few to stand off an attack by those yellow
+demons who swarmed the Eastern seas in the time of my boyhood and who, for
+all I know, swarm them still.
+
+There came at last a day when we went aloft and saw with red eyes that
+ached for sleep hills above the horizon and a ship in the offing with all
+sails set. A splendid sight she was, for our own flag flew from the ensign
+halyards, and less than three weeks before, any man of us would have given
+his right hand to see that ship and that flag within hail; but now it was
+the sight of land that thrilled us to the heart. Hungry, thirsty, worn out
+with fatigue, we joyously stared at those low, distant hills.
+
+"Oh, mah golly, oh, mah golly!" the cook cried, in ecstasy, "jest once Ah
+gits mah foots on dry land Ah's gwine be de happies' nigger eveh bo'n. Ah
+ain' neveh gwine to sea agin, no sah, not neveh."
+
+"Ay, land's good," Davie Paine muttered, "but the sea holds a man."
+
+Blodgett said naught. What dreams of wealth were stirring in his head, I
+never knew. He was so very pale! He more than any one else, I think, was
+exhausted by the hardships of the voyage.
+
+Roger, gaunt and silent, stood with his arms crossed on the rail. He had
+eaten almost nothing; he had slept scarcely at all. With unceasing courage
+he had done his duty by day and by night, and I realized as I saw him
+standing there, sternly indomitable, that his was the fibre of heroes. I
+was proud of him--and when I thought of my sister, I was glad. Then it was
+that I remembered my father's words when, as we walked toward Captain
+Whidden's house, we heard our gate shut and he knew without looking back
+who had entered.
+
+We came into the Canton River, or the Chu-Kiang as it is called, by the
+Bocca-Tigris, and with the help of some sailing directions that Captain
+Whidden had left in writing we passed safely through the first part of
+the channel between Tiger Island and Towling Flat. Thence, keeping the
+watch-tower on Chuen-pee Fort well away from the North Fort of Anung-hoy,
+we worked up toward Towling Island in seven or eight fathoms.
+
+A thousand little boats and sampans clustered round us, and we were annoyed
+and a little frightened by the gesticulations of the Chinese who manned
+them, until it dawned on us that they wished to serve as pilots. By signs
+we drove a bargain--a silver dollar and two fingers; three fingers; five
+fingers--and got for seven silver dollars the services of several men in
+four sampans, who took their places along the channel just ahead of us and
+sounded the depth with bamboo poles, until by their guidance we crossed the
+second bar on the flood tide, which providentially came at the very hour
+when we most needed it, and proceeded safely on up the river.
+
+That night, too tired and weak to stand, we let the best bower go by the
+run in Whampoa Roads, and threw ourselves on the deck. By and by--hours
+later it seemed--we heard the sound of oars.
+
+"Island Princess ahoy!" came the hearty hail.
+
+"Ahoy," some one replied.
+
+"What's wrong? Come, look alive! What does this mean?"
+
+I now sat up and saw that Roger was standing in the stern just as he had
+stood before, his feet spread far apart, his arms folded, his chin
+out-thrust. "Do you, sir," he said slowly, "happen to have a bottle of wine
+with you?"
+
+I heard the men talking together, but I could not tell what they were
+saying. Next, I saw a head appear above the bulwark and realized that they
+were coming aboard.
+
+"Bless my soul! What's happened? Where's Captain Whidden? Bless my soul!
+Who are _you_?" The speaker was big, well dressed, comfortably well fed. He
+stared at the six of us sprawled out grotesquely on the deck, where we had
+thrown ourselves when the ship swung at her anchor. He looked up at the
+loose, half-furled sails. He turned to Roger, who stood gaunt and silent
+before him. "Bless my soul! _Who are you?_"
+
+"I," said Roger, "am Mr. Hamlin, supercargo of this ship."
+
+"But where--what in heaven's name has taken place? Where's Captain
+Whidden?"
+
+"Captain Whidden," said Roger, "is dead."
+
+"But when--but what--"
+
+"_Who are you?_" Roger fired the words at him like a thunderclap.
+
+"I--I--I am Mr. Johnston, agent for Thomas Webster and Sons," the man
+stammered.
+
+"Sir," cried Roger, "if you are agent for Thomas Webster and Sons, fetch us
+food and water and get watchmen to guard this ship while we sleep. Then,
+sir, I'll tell you such a story as you'll not often hear."
+
+The well-fed, comfortable man regarded him with a kind of frown. The
+situation was so extraordinary that he simply could not comprehend it. For
+a moment he hesitated, then, stepping to the side, he called down some
+order, which I did not understand, but which evidently sent the boat
+hurrying back to the landing. As he paced the deck, he repeated over and
+over in a curiously helpless way, "Bless my soul! Bless my soul!"
+
+All this time I was aware of Roger still standing defiantly on the
+quarter-deck. I know that I fell asleep, and that when I woke he was still
+there. Shortly afterwards some one raised my head and gave me something hot
+to drink and some one else repeated my name, and I saw that Roger was no
+longer in sight. Then, as I was carried below, I vaguely heard some one
+repeating over and over, "Bless my soul! It is awful! Why won't that young
+man explain things? Bless my soul!" When I opened my eyes sunlight was
+creeping through the hatch.
+
+"Is this not Mr. Lathrop?" a stranger asked, when I stepped out in the open
+air--and virtually for the first time, so weary had I been the night
+before, saw the pointed hills, the broad river, and the great fleet of
+ships lying at anchor.
+
+"Yes," said I, surprised at the man's respectful manner. Immediately I was
+aware that he was no sailor.
+
+"I thought as much. Mr. Hamlin says, will you go to the cabin. I was just
+going to call you. Mr. Johnston has come aboard again and there's some kind
+of a conference. Mr. Johnston does get so wrought up! If you'll hurry right
+along--"
+
+As I turned, the strange landsman kept in step with me. "Mr. Johnston is so
+wrought up!" he repeated interminably. "So wrought up! I never saw him so
+upset before."
+
+When I entered the cabin, Roger sat in the captain's chair, with Mr.
+Johnston on his right and a strange gentleman on his left. Opposite Roger
+was a vacant seat, but I did not venture to sit down until the others
+indicated that they wished me to do so.
+
+"This is a strange story I've been hearing, Mr. Lathrop," said Mr.
+Johnston. His manner instantly revealed that my family connection carried
+weight with him. "I thought it best you should join us. One never knows
+when a witness will be needed. It's one of the most disturbing situations
+I've met in all my experience."
+
+The stranger gravely nodded.
+
+"Certainly it is without precedent in my own experience," said Roger.
+
+Mr. Johnston tapped the table nervously. "Captain and chief mate killed by
+a member of the crew; second mate--later, acting captain--accused of
+abetting the murder. You must admit, sir, that you make that charge on
+decidedly inadequate evidence. And one hundred thousand dollars in gold
+gone, heaven knows where! Bless my soul, what shall I do?"
+
+"Do?" cried Roger. "Help us to make arrangements to unload the cargo, to
+ship a new crew, and to get a return cargo. It seems to me obvious enough
+what you 'shall do'!"
+
+"But, Mr. Hamlin, the situation is extraordinary. There are legal problems
+involved. There is no captain--bless my soul! I never heard of such a
+thing."
+
+"I've brought this ship across the China Sea with only six hands. I assure
+you that I shall have no difficulty in taking her back to Salem when a
+new crew is aboard." Roger's eyes twinkled as of old. "Here's your
+captain--I'll do. Lathrop, here, will do good work as supercargo, I'm sure.
+I'm told there's the crew of a wrecked brig in port. They'll fill up our
+forecastle and maybe furnish me with a mate or two. You'll have to give us
+papers of a kind."
+
+"Lathrop as supercargo? He's too young. He's only a lad."
+
+"We can get no one else off-hand who has so good an education," said Roger.
+"He can write a fair-copy, cipher, and keep books. I'll warrant, Mr.
+Johnston, that not even you can catch him napping with a problem in tare
+and tret. Above all, the Websters know him well and will be glad to see him
+climb."
+
+"Hm! I'm doubtful--well, very well. As you say. But one hundred thousand
+dollars in gold--bless my soul! I was told nothing about that; the letters
+barely mention it." Mr. Johnston beat a mad tattoo on the arm of his chair.
+
+"That, sir, is my affair and my responsibility. I will answer to the
+owners."
+
+"Bless my soul! I'm afraid I'll be compounding piracy, murder, and heaven
+knows what other crimes; but we shall see--we shall see." Mr. Johnston got
+up and paced the cabin nervously. "Well, what's done's done. Nothing to do
+but make the best of a bad bargain. Woolens are high now, praise the Lord,
+and there's a lively demand for ginseng. Well, I've already had good
+offers. I'll show you the figures, Captain Hamlin, if you'll come to the
+factory. And you, too, Mr. Lathrop. If you daren't leave the ship, I'll
+send ashore for them. I'm confident we can fill out your crew, and I
+suppose I'll have to give you some kind of a statement to authorize your
+retaining command--What if I am compounding a felony? Bless my soul! And
+one hundred thousand dollars!"
+
+I was glad enough to see Mr. Johnston rowed away from the ship. Roger,
+accompanying him, returned late in the evening with half a dozen new men
+and a Mr. Cledd, formerly mate of the brig Essay, which had been wrecked a
+few weeks before in a typhoon off Hainan. He was a pleasant fellow of about
+Roger's age, and had a frank manner that we all liked. The new men, all of
+whom had served under him on the Essay, reported him to be a smart officer,
+a little severe perhaps, but perfectly fair in his dealings with the crew;
+so we were almost as glad to have him in the place of Kipping, as we were
+to have Roger in the place of Captain Falk. We had settled down in the
+forecastle to talk things over when presently word came that Davie Paine
+and I were wanted aft.
+
+"Ben," said Roger to me, cordially, "you can move your things into the
+cabin. You are to be supercargo." He tapped his pencil on the table and
+turned to Davie with a kindly smile. "You, Davie, can have your old
+berth of second mate, if you wish it. I'll not degrade a faithful man.
+You'd better move aft to-day, for the new crew is coming aboard to-morrow."
+
+Davie scratched his head and shifted his feet uneasily. "Thank you, sir,"
+he said at last. "It's good of you and I'm sure I appreciate it, but I
+ain't no great shakes of a scholar and I--well, if it's all the same to
+you, sir, I'll stay for'ard with the men, sir."
+
+I was surprised to find how hard it was to leave the forecastle. The others
+were all so friendly and so glad of my good fortune, that they brought a
+lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. It seemed as if I were taking leave
+forever, instead of only moving the length of the ship; and, indeed, as I
+had long since learned, the distance from forecastle to cabin is not to be
+measured by feet and inches.
+
+"I knew't would come," Neddie Benson remarked. "You was a gentleman's son.
+But we've had good times together--ay, and hard times, too." He shook his
+head dolefully.
+
+All who were left of the old crew gathered round me while I closed my
+chest, and Blodgett and Davie Paine seized the beckets before I knew what
+they were about and carried it to my stateroom.
+
+
+As I passed the galley the cook stopped me. "You ain't gwine far, sah,
+praise de Lo'd!" he said. "Dah's a hot time ahead and we gotta stand one by
+anotheh. Ah's gwine keep my eye on dat yeh man f'om Boston. Yass, sah! Ah's
+gwine keep mah eye on him."
+
+Now what did the cook mean by that, I wondered. But no answer suggested
+itself to me, and when I entered the cabin I heard things that drove the
+cook and the man from Boston far out of my mind.
+
+"Kipping!" Mr. Cledd, the new chief mate was saying. "Not _William_
+Kipping?"
+
+Roger got down the attested copy of the articles and pointed at the neatly
+written name: "William Kipping."
+
+Mr. Cledd looked very grave indeed. "I've heard of Falk--he's a vicious
+scoundrel in some ways, although too weak to be dangerous of his own
+devices But I _know_ Kipping."
+
+"Tell me about him,' said Roger.
+
+"Kipping is the meanest, doggonedest, low-down wharf-runner that ever
+robbed poor Jack of his wages. That's Kipping. Furthermore, he never signed
+a ship's articles unless he thought there was considerable money in it
+somewhere. I tell you, Captain Hamlin, he's an angry, disappointed man at
+this very minute. If you want to know what I think, he's out somewhere on
+those seas yonder--_just_--_waiting_. We've not seen the last of Kipping."
+
+Roger got up, and walking over to the chest of ammunition, thoughtfully
+regarded it.
+
+"No, sir!" Mr. Cledd reiterated, "if Kipping's Kipping, we've not seen the
+last of him."
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OLD SCORES AND NEW AND A DOUBTFUL WELCOME
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+A MYSTERY IS SOLVED, AND A THIEF GETS AWAY
+
+
+Innumerable sampans were plying up and down the river, some with masts and
+some without, and great junks with carved sterns lay side by side so
+closely that their sails formed a patchwork as many-colored as Joseph's
+coat. There were West River small craft with arched deck-houses, which had
+beaten their way precariously far up and down the coast; tall, narrow sails
+from the north, and web-peaked sails on curved yards from the south; Hainan
+and Kwangtung trawlers working upstream with staysails set, and a few
+storm-tossed craft with great holes gaping between their battens. All were
+nameless when I saw them for the first time, and strange; but in the days
+that followed I learned them rope and spar.
+
+Vessels from almost every western nation were there, too--bluff-bowed Dutch
+craft with square-headed crews, brigantines from the Levant, and ships from
+Spain, England, and America.
+
+The captains of three other American ships in port came aboard to inquire
+about the state of the seas between the Si-Kiang and the Cape of Good Hope
+and shook their heads gravely at what we told them. One, an old friend of
+Captain Whidden, said that he knew my own father. "It's shameful that such
+things should be--simply shameful," he declared, when he had heard the
+story of our fight with the Arab ship. "What with Arabs and Malays on the
+high seas, Ladronesers in port--ay, and British men-of-war everywhere!"
+
+He went briskly over the side, settled himself in the stern-sheets of his
+boat, and gave us on the quarter-deck a wave of his hand; then his men
+rowed him smartly away down-stream.
+
+"Ay, it is shameful," Roger repeated. He soberly watched the other
+disappear among the shipping, then he turned to Mr. Cledd. "I shall go
+ashore for the day," he said. "I have business that will take considerable
+time, and I think that Mr. Lathrop had better come too, and bring his
+books."
+
+As we left the ship we saw Mr. Cledd observing closely all that went
+forward, and Roger gravely nodded when I remarked that our new mate knew
+his business.
+
+At the end of some three weeks of hard work we had cleared the hold,
+painted and overhauled the ship inside and out, and were ready to begin
+loading at daylight on a Monday morning. However great was Mr. Johnston's
+proclivity to get "wrought up," he had proved himself an excellent man of
+business by the way he had conducted our affairs ashore when once he put
+his hand to them; and we, too, had accomplished much, both in getting out
+the cargo and in putting the ship in repair. We had stripped her to her
+girt-lines, calked her, decks and all, from her hold up, and painted her
+inside and out. She was a sight to be proud of, when, rigged once more, she
+swung at her anchorage.
+
+That evening, as Roger and Mr. Cledd, the new second mate, and I were
+sitting in the cabin and talking of our plans and prospects, we heard a
+step on the companionway.
+
+"Who's that?" Mr. Cledd asked in an undertone. "I thought steward had gone
+for the night."
+
+Roger motioned him to remain silent. We all turned.
+
+To our amazement it was the cook who suddenly appeared before us, rolling
+his eyes wildly under his deep frown.
+
+"'Scuse me, gen'lems! 'Scuse me, Cap'n Hamlin! 'Scuse me, Mistah Cledd!
+'Scuse me, ev'ybody! Ah knows Ah done didn't had ought to, but Ah says,
+Frank, you ol' nigger, you jest up 'n' go. Don't you let dat feller git
+away with all dat yeh money."
+
+"What's that?" Roger cried sharply.
+
+"Yass, sah! Yass, sah! Hun f'om Boston! He's got de chisel and de hammer
+and de saw."
+
+We all stared.
+
+"Come, come, doctor," said Roger. "What's this cock-and-bull story?"
+
+"Yass, sah, he's got de chisel and de hammer and de saw. Ah was a-watchin',
+yass, sah. He don't fool dis yeh ol' nigger. Ah see him sneakin' round when
+Chips he ain't looking."
+
+For a moment Roger frowned, then in a low, calm voice he said, "Mr. Cledd,
+you'll take command on deck. Have a few men with you. Better see that your
+pistols are well primed. You two, come with me. Now, then, Frank, lead the
+way."
+
+From the deck we could see the lanterns of all the ships lying at anchor,
+the hills and the land-lights and a boat or two moving on the river. We
+hurried close at the negro's heels to the main hatch.
+
+"Look dah!" The negro rested the blunt tip of one of his great fingers on
+the deck.
+
+Some sharp tool had dropped beside the hatch and had cut a straight, thin
+line where it fell.
+
+"Chisel done dat."
+
+We were communicating in whispers now, and with a finger at his lips the
+cook gave us a warning glance. He then laid hold of the rope that was made
+fast to a shears overhead, swung out, and slid down to the very keelson.
+Silently, one at a time, we followed. The only sound was our sibilant
+breathing and the very faint shuffle of feet. Now we could see, almost
+midway between the hatches, the dim light of a candle and a man at work.
+While we watched, the man cautiously struck several blows. Was he scuttling
+the ship? Then, as Roger and the cook tiptoed forward, I suddenly tripped
+over a piece of plank and sprawled headlong.
+
+As I fell, I saw Roger and the cook leap ahead, then the man doused the
+light. There was a sound of scuffling, a crash, a splutter of angry words.
+A moment later I heard the click of flint on steel, a tiny blaze sprang
+from the tinder, and the candle again sent up its bright flame.
+
+"Come, Ben, hold the light," Roger called. He and Frank had the man from
+Boston down on the limber board and were holding him fast. The fight,
+though fierce while it lasted, already was over.
+
+The second mate now handed me the candle, and bent over and examined the
+hole the man had cut in the ceiling. "Is the scoundrel trying to sink us?"
+he asked hotly.
+
+Roger smiled. "I suspect there's more than that behind this little
+project," he replied.
+
+The man from Boston groaned. "Don't--don't twist my arm," he begged.
+
+"Heee-ha-ha!" laughed the cook. "Guess Ah knows whar dat money is."
+
+"Open up the hole, Ben," said Roger.
+
+I saw now that there was a chalk-line, as true as the needle, from
+somewhere above us in the darkness, drawn along the skin of the hold
+perpendicular to the keelson, and that the man from Boston had begun to cut
+at the bilge where the line crossed it.
+
+He blinked at me angrily as I sawed through the planks. But when with
+chisel and saw I had removed a square yard of planking and revealed only
+the bilge-water that had backed up from the pump well, he brightened. Had
+the Island Princess not been as tight as you could wish, we should have had
+a wetter time of it than we had. Our feet were wet as it was, and the man
+from Boston was sadly drabbled.
+
+"There's nothing there?" said Roger, interrogatively. "Hm! Put your hand in
+and feel around."
+
+I reluctantly obeyed. Finding nothing at first, I thrust my arm deeper,
+then higher up beyond the curve. My fingers touched something hard that
+slipped away from them. Regardless of the foul water, I thrust my arm in
+still farther, and, securing my hold on a cord, drew out a leather bag. It
+was black and slimy, and so heavy that I had to use both hands to lift it,
+and it clinked when I set it down.
+
+"I thought so," said Roger. "There'll be more of them in there. Fish them
+out, Bennie."
+
+While Roger and the cook sat on the man from Boston and forced him down
+into the evil-smelling bilge-water, the second mate and I felt around under
+the skin of the hold and drew out bag after bag, until the candle-light
+showed eighteen lying side by side.
+
+"There ought to be two more," said Roger.
+
+"I can't find another one, sir," the second mate replied.
+
+I now hit upon an idea. "Here," said I, "here's what will do the work." I
+had picked up a six-foot pole and the others eagerly seized upon my
+suggestion.
+
+I worked the pole into the space between the inner and outer planking while
+the man from Boston blinked at me angrily, and fished about with it until I
+discovered and pried within reach two more leather bags.
+
+"Well done!" Roger cried. "Cook, suppose you take this fellow in
+tow,--we've a good strong set of irons waiting for him,--and I'll help
+carry these bags over under the hatch."
+
+Calling up to Mr. Cledd, Roger then instructed him to throw down a
+tarpaulin, which he did, and this we made fast about the twenty bags.
+Having taken several turns of a rope's end round the whole, Roger, carrying
+the other end, climbed hand-over-hand the rope by which we had lowered
+ourselves, and I followed at his heels; then we rigged a tackle and, with
+several men to help us, hauled up the bundle.
+
+"Cap'n Hamlin, sah," the cook called, "how's we gwine send up dis yeh
+scound'l?"
+
+"Let him come," said Roger. "We'll see to him. Prick his calves with a
+knife if he's slow about it."
+
+We heard the cook say in a lower voice, "G'wan, you ol' scalliwaggle";
+then, "Heah he is, cap'n, heah he come! Watch out foh him. He's
+nimble--yass, sah, he's nimble."
+
+The rope swayed in the darkness below the hatch, then the fellow's head and
+shoulders appeared; but, as we reached to seize him, he evaded our
+outstretched fingers by a quick wriggle, flung himself safely to the deck
+on the far side of the hatch, and leaping to the bulwark, dove into the
+river with scarcely a splash.
+
+Some one fired a musket at the water; the flash illuminated the side of the
+ship, and an echo rolled solemnly back from the shore. Three or four men
+pointed and called, "There he goes--there--there! See him swimming!" For a
+moment I myself saw him, a dark spot at the apex of a V-shaped ripple, then
+he disappeared. It was the last we ever knew of the man from Boston.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+
+We had the gold, though, twenty leather bags of it; and we carried it to
+the cabin and packed it into the safe, which it just filled.
+
+"Now," said Roger, "we _have_ a story to tell Mr. Johnston."
+
+"So we have!" exclaimed Mr. Cledd, who had heard as yet but a small part of
+this eventful history. "Will you tell me, though, how that beggar ever knew
+those bags were just there?"
+
+"Certainly." Roger's eyes twinkled as of old. "He put them there. When the
+islanders were everywhere aboard ship, and the rest of us were so much
+taken up with them and with the fight we'd just been through that we
+didn't know what was on foot,--it was still so dark that he could work
+unnoticed,--he sneaked below and opened the safe, which he had the craft to
+lock again behind him, and hauled the money forward to the hatch, a few
+bags at a time. Eventually he found a chance to crawl over the cargo, start
+a plank in the ceiling, drop the bags down inside the jacket one by one,
+and mark the place. Then, holding his peace until the cargo was out of the
+hold, he drew a chalk line straight down from his mark to the lower deck,
+took bearings from the hatch, and continued the line from the beam-clamp to
+the bilge, and cut on the curve. There, of course, was where the money had
+fallen. He worked hard--and failed."
+
+Then I remembered the hatch that had been pried off when the natives were
+ranging over the boat.
+
+Early next morning Roger, Mr. Cledd, and I, placing the money between us in
+the boat and arming ourselves and our men, each with a brace of pistols,
+went ashore. That brief trip seems a mere trifle as I write of it here and
+now, so far in distance and in time from the river at Whampoa, but I truly
+think it was as perilous a voyage as any I have made; for pirates, or
+Ladronesers as they were called, could not be distinguished from ordinary
+boatmen, and enough true stories of robbery and murder on that river passed
+current among seafaring men in my boyhood to make the everlasting fortune
+of one of those fellows who have nothing better to do than sit down and
+spin out a yarn of hair-raising adventures. But we showed our cocked
+pistols and passed unmolested through the press, and came at last safe to
+the landing.
+
+Laboring under the weight of gold, we went by short stages up to the
+factory, where Mr. Johnston in his dressing-gown met us, blessing his soul
+and altogether upset.
+
+"Never in my life," he cried, clasping his hands, "have I seen such men as
+you. And now, pray, what brings you here?"
+
+"We have come with one hundred thousand dollars," said Roger, "to be paid
+to the Chinese gentleman of whom you and I have spoken together."
+
+Mr. Johnston looked at the lumpy bundles wrapped now in canvas and for once
+rose to an emergency. "Come in," he said. "I'll dispatch a messenger
+immediately. Come in and I'll join you at breakfast."
+
+We ate our breakfast that morning with a fortune in gold coin under the
+table; and when the boat came down the river, bringing a quiet man whom Mr.
+Johnston introduced as the very person we were seeking, and who himself in
+quaint pidgin English corroborated the statement that he it was who had
+sent to Thomas Webster the five teakwood chests, we paid him the money and
+received in return his receipt beautifully written with small flourishes of
+the brush.
+
+"That's done," said Roger, when all was over, "in spite of as rascally a
+crew as ever sailed a Salem ship. I am, I fear, a pirate, a mutineer, and
+various other unsavory things; but I declare, Mr. Cledd, in addition to
+them all, I am an honest man."
+
+The coolies already had begun to pass chests of tea into the hold when we
+came aboard; and under the eye of the second mate, who was proving himself
+in every respect a competent officer,--in his own place the equal, perhaps,
+of Mr. Cledd in his,--all hands were industriously working. The days passed
+swiftly. Work aboard ship and business ashore crowded every hour; and so
+our stay on the river drew to an end.
+
+Before that time, however, Blodgett hesitantly sought me out one night.
+"Mr. Lathrop," he said with a bit of constraint, "I and Davie and Neddie
+and cook was a-thinkin' we'd like to do something for poor Bill Hayden's
+little girl. Of course we ain't got no great to give, but we've taken up a
+little purse of money, and we wondered wouldn't you, seein' you was a good
+friend to old Bill, like to come in with us?"
+
+That I was glad of the chance, I assured him. "And Captain Hamlin will come
+in, too," I added. "Oh, I'm certain he will."
+
+Blodgett seemed pleased. "Thinks I, he's likely to, but it ain't fit I
+should ask the captain."
+
+Promising to present the plea as if it were my own, I sent Blodgett away
+reassured, and eventually we all raised a sum that bought such a royal doll
+as probably no merchant in Newburyport ever gave his small daughter, and
+enough silk to make the little maid, when she should reach the age for it,
+as handsome a gown as ever woman wore. Nor was that the end. The night
+before we sailed from China, Blodgett came to me secretly, after a
+mysterious absence, and pressed a small package into my hand.
+
+"Don't tell," he said. "It's little enough. If we'd stopped off on some o'
+them islands I might ha' done better. Thinks I last night, I'd like to send
+her a bit of a gift all by myself as a kind of a keepsake, you know, sir,
+seeing I never had a little lass o' my own. So I slips away from the others
+and borrows a boat that was handy to the shore and drops down stream
+quiet-like till I comes in sight of one of them temples where there's gongs
+ringing and all manner of queer goings-on. Says I,--not aloud, you
+understand,--'Here, my lad, 's the very place you're looking for, just
+a-waiting for you!' So I sneaks up soft and easy,--it were a rare dark
+night,--and looks in, and what do I see by the light o' them there crazy
+lanterns? There was one o' them heathen idols! Yes, sir, a heathen idol as
+handy as you please. 'Aha!' says I,--not aloud, you understand, sir,--'Aha!
+I'll wager you've got a fine pair o' rubies in your old eye-sockets, you
+blessed idol.' And with that I takes a squint at the lay o' the land and
+sees my chance, and in I walks. The old priest, he gives a squawk, but I
+cracks him with a brass pot full of incense, which scatters and nigh chokes
+me, and I grabs the ear-rings and runs before they catches me, for all
+there's a million of 'em a-yammering at my heels. I never had a chance at
+the eyes--worse luck! But I fared well, when all's said and done. It was a
+dark night, thank heaven, and the boat was handy. The rings is jade. She'll
+like 'em some day."
+
+I restrained my chuckles until he had gone, and added the stolen treasures
+to the rest of the gifts. What else could I do? Certainly it was beyond my
+power to restore them to the rightful owners.
+
+The last chest of tea and the last roll of silk were swung into the hold,
+the hatches were battened down, and all was cleared for sailing as soon as
+wind and tide should favor us.
+
+That morning Mr. Johnston came aboard, more brisk and pompous than ever,
+and having critically inspected the ship, met us in the cabin for a final
+word. My new duties as supercargo had kept me busy and my papers were
+scattered over the table; but when I started to gather them up and
+withdraw, he motioned me to stay.
+
+"Never in all my experience has such a problem as this arisen," he
+exclaimed, rubbing his chin lugubriously. "Bless my soul! Who ever heard of
+such a thing? Captain and chief mate murdered--crew mutinied--bless my
+soul! Well, Captain Hamlin--I suppose you've noticed before, that I give
+you the title of master?--well, Captain Hamlin, I fear I'm compounding
+felony, but after all that's a matter to be settled in the courts. I'm
+confident that I cannot be held criminally responsible for not
+understanding a nice point in admiralty. Whatever else happens, the ship
+must go home to Salem, and you, sir, are the logical man to take her home.
+Well, sir, although in a way you represent the owners more directly than I
+do, still your authority is vicariously acquired and I've that here
+which'll protect you against interruption in the course of the voyage by
+any lawful process. I doubt, from all I've heard, if Falk will go to law;
+but here's a paper--" he drew it out of his pocket and laid it on the
+table--"signed, sealed and witnessed, stating that I, Walter Johnston,
+agent in China for Thomas Webster and Sons, do hereby recognize you as
+master of the ship Island Princess, and do invest you, as far as my
+authority goes, with whatever privileges and responsibilities are attached
+to the office. All questions legal and otherwise, ensuing from this
+investure, must be settled on your arrival at the United States of America.
+That, sir, is the best I can do for you, and I assure you that I hope
+sincerely you may not be hanged as a pirate but that I am by no means
+certain of it."
+
+Thus he left-handedly concluded his remarks, and murmuring under his
+breath, "Bless my soul," as if in final protest against everything without
+precedent, folded his fat hands over his expansive waist-band.
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Johnston," Roger replied gravely, though he could not
+completely hide the amusement in his eyes. "I'm sure it is handsome of you
+to do so much for us, and I certainly hope no act of piracy or violence, of
+which we may have been guilty, will compromise you in the slightest
+degree."
+
+"Thank _you_, Captain Hamlin. I hope so myself."
+
+If I had met Roger's glance, I must have laughed outright. The man was so
+unconscious of any double edge to Roger's words, and so complacent, that
+our meeting was all but farce, when he bethought himself of another subject
+of which he had intended to speak.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed. "I well nigh forgot. Shall you--but of
+course you will not!--go home by way of Sunda Strait?"
+
+Mr. Cledd, who hitherto had sat with a slight smile on his lean Yankee
+face, now looked at Roger with keener interest.
+
+"Yes," said Roger, "I shall go home by way of Sunda Strait."
+
+"Now surely, Captain Hamlin, that would be folly; there are other courses."
+
+"But none so direct."
+
+"A long way round is often the shortest way home. Why, bless my soul, that
+would be to back your sails in the face of Providence."
+
+Roger leaned forward. "Why should I not go home by way of Sunda Strait?"
+
+"Why, my dear sir, if any one were--er-er--to wish you harm,--and if your
+own story is to be believed, there are those who do wish you harm,--Sunda
+Strait, of all places in the world, is the easiest to cut you off."
+
+"Mr. Johnston, that is nonsense," said Roger. "Such things don't happen. I
+will go home by way of Sunda Strait."
+
+"But, Captain Hamlin,--" the good man rubbed his hands more nervously than
+ever,--"but, Captain Hamlin, bless my soul, I consider it highly
+inadvisable."
+
+Roger smiled. "Sir, I will not back down. By Sunda Strait we came. By Sunda
+Strait we'll return. If any man wishes to see us there--" He finished the
+sentence with another smile.
+
+Mr. Cledd spoke up sharply. "Ay, and if a certain man we all know of should
+appear, I'm thinking he'd be unpleasantly surprised to find me aboard."
+
+Mr. Johnston rubbed his hands and tapped the table and rubbed his hands
+again. So comfortable did he appear, and so well-fed, that he seemed quite
+out of place in that severely plain cabin, beside Roger and Mr. Cledd. That
+he had a certain mercantile shrewdness I was ready to admit; but the others
+were men fearless and quick to act.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he said at last, beating a tattoo on the table with his
+soft fingers. "Bless my soul!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THROUGH SUNDA STRAIT
+
+
+Laden deep with tea and silk, we dropped down the Chu-Kiang, past Macao and
+the Ladrone Islands, and out through the Great West Channel. Since the
+northeast monsoon now had set in and the winds were constant, we soon
+passed the tide-rips of St. Esprit, and sighting only a few small islands
+covered with brush and mangroves, where the seas broke in long lines of
+silver under an occasional cocoanut palm, we left astern in due time the
+treacherous water of the Paracel Reefs.
+
+Each day was much like every other until we had put the China Sea behind
+us. We touched at the mouth of the Saigon, but found no promise of trade,
+and weighed anchor again with the intention of visiting Singapore. Among
+other curious things, we saw a number of pink porpoises and some that were
+mottled pink and white and brown. Porpoises not infrequently are spotted by
+disease; but those that we saw appeared to be in excellent health, and
+although we remarked on their odd appearance, we believed their strange
+colors to be entirely natural. A fleet of galleys, too, which we saw in the
+offing, helped break the monotony of our life. There must have been fifty
+of them, with flags a-flutter and arms bristling. Although we did not
+approach them near enough to learn more about them, it seemed probable that
+they were conveying some great mandarin or chief on affairs of state.
+
+"That man Blodgett is telling stories of one kind or another," Mr. Cledd
+remarked one afternoon, after watching a little group that had gathered by
+the forecastle-hatch during the first dog-watch. "The fortuneteller fellow,
+too, Benson, is stirring up the men."
+
+As I looked across the water at the small island of palms where the waves
+were rolling with a sullen roar, which carried far on the evening air, I
+saw a native boat lying off the land, and dimly through the mists I saw the
+sail of an old junk. I watched the junk uneasily. Small wonder that the men
+were apprehensive, I thought.
+
+After leaving Singapore, we passed the familiar shores of eastern Sumatra,
+Banka Island and Banka Strait, and the mouths of the Palambang, but in an
+inverted order, which made them seem as strange as if we never before had
+sighted them. Then one night, heading west against the tide, we anchored in
+a rolling swell, with Kodang Island to the northeast and Sindo Island to
+the north. On the one hand were the Zutphen Islands; on the other was Hog
+Point; and almost abeam of us the Sumatran coast rose to the steep bluff
+that across some miles of sea faces the Java shore. We lay in Sunda Strait.
+
+I came on deck after a while and saw the men stirring about.
+
+"They're uneasy," said Mr. Cledd.
+
+"I'm not surprised," I replied.
+
+The trees on the high summit of the island off which we lay were
+silhouetted clearly against the sky. What spying eyes might not look down
+upon us from those wooded heights? What lawless craft might not lurk beyond
+its abrupt headlands?
+
+"No, I don't wonder, either," said Mr. Cledd, thoughtfully.
+
+At daybreak we again weighed anchor and set sail. Three or four times a
+far-away vessel set my heart leaping, but each in turn passed and we saw it
+no more. A score of native proas manoeuvring at a distance singly or by
+twos caused Roger to call up the watch and prepare for any eventuality; but
+they vanished as silently as they had appeared. At nightfall we once more
+hove to, having made but little progress, and lay at anchor until dawn.
+
+In the darkness that night the cook came up to me in the waist whither I
+had wandered, unable to sleep. "Mistah Lathrop," he muttered, "Ah don't
+like dis yeh nosing and prying roun' islands whar a ship's got to lay up
+all night jes' like an ol' hen with a mess of chickens."
+
+We watched phosphorescent waves play around the anchor cable. The spell of
+uneasiness weighed heavily on us both.
+
+The next evening, still beating our way against adverse winds, we rounded
+Java Head, which seemed so low by moonlight that I scarcely could believe
+it was the famous promontory beyond which lay the open sea. I went to my
+stateroom, expecting once again to sleep soundly all night long. Certainly
+it seemed now that all our troubles must be over. Yet I could not compose
+myself. After a time I came on deck, and found topsails and royals set and
+Mr. Cledd in command.
+
+"All goes well, Mr. Lathrop," he said with a smile, "but that darky cook
+seems not to believe it. He's prowling about like an old owl."
+
+"Which is he?" I asked; for several of the men were pacing the deck and at
+the moment I could not distinguish between them.
+
+"They do seem to be astir. That nearest man walks like Blodgett. Has the
+negro scared them all?"
+
+When, just after Mr. Cledd had spoken, Blodgett came aft, we were
+surprised; but he approached us with an air of suppressed excitement, which
+averted any reprimand Mr. Cledd may have had in mind.
+
+"If you please, sir," he said, "there's a sail to windward."
+
+"To windward? You're mistaken. You ought to call out if you see a sail, but
+it's just as well you didn't this time."
+
+Mr. Cledd turned his back on Blodgett after looking hard up the wind.
+
+"If you please, sir, I've got good eyes." Blodgett's manner was such that
+no one could be seriously offended by his persistence.
+
+"My eyes are good, too," Mr. Cledd replied rather sharply. "I see no
+sail."
+
+Nor did I.
+
+Blodgett leaned on the rail and stared into the darkness like a cat. "If
+you please, sir," he said, "I beg your pardon, but I _can_ see a sail."
+
+Now, for the first time I thought that I myself saw something moving. "I
+see a bank of fog blowing westward," I remarked, "but I don't think it's a
+sail."
+
+After a moment, Mr. Cledd spoke up frankly. "I'll take back what I've just
+said. I see it too. It's only a junk, but I suppose we'd better call the
+captain."
+
+"Only a junk!" Blodgett repeated sharply. "When last we saw 'em, a junk was
+all they had."
+
+"What's that?" Mr. Cledd demanded.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, they was sailing away in a junk, sir."
+
+Mr. Cledd stepped to the companionway. "Captain Hamlin," he called.
+
+The junk was running free when we first sighted her, but just as she was
+passing astern of us, she began to come slowly about. I could see a great
+number of men swaying in unison against the helm that controlled the
+gigantic rudder. Others were bracing the curious old sails.
+
+"I wish she were near enough for us to watch them handle the sails on the
+after masts," I said.
+
+She had a pair of mizzen-masts, one on the larboard side, one on the
+starboard, and I was puzzled to know how they were used.
+
+"She'll pass close aboard on this next tack," Mr. Cledd replied. "I think
+we'll be able to see." He had paused to watch her manoeuvres.
+
+"Here's the doctor," Blodgett murmured.
+
+Black Frank was coming aft with a quick humpy walk. "'Scuse me, sah, 'scuse
+me!" he said. "But I's skeered that we--"
+
+Mr. Cledd now had gone to the companion. "Captain Hamlin," he called again,
+"there's a junk passing close aboard."
+
+I heard Roger's step on the companion-way. It later transpired that he had
+not heard the first summons.
+
+"Mah golly! Look dah!" the cook exclaimed.
+
+The junk was looming up dangerously.
+
+Mr. Cledd caught my arm. "Run forward quick--quick--call up all hands," he
+cried. Then raising the trumpet, "Half a dozen of you men loose the
+cannon."
+
+Leaping to the spar deck, I ran to do his bidding, for the junk now was
+bearing swiftly down upon us. On my way to the forecastle-hatch I noted the
+stacked pikes and loaded muskets by the mainmast, and picked out the most
+likely cover from which to fire on possible boarders. That my voice was
+shaking with excitement, I did not realize until I had sent my summons
+trembling down into the darkness.
+
+I heard the men leaping from their bunks; I heard Roger giving sharp
+commands from the quarter-deck; I heard voices on the junk. By accident or
+by malice, she inevitably was going to collide with the Island Princess. As
+we came up into the wind with sails a-shiver, I scurried back to the stack
+of muskets.
+
+Neddie Benson was puffing away just behind me. "I didn't ought to 'ave
+come," he moaned. "I had my warning. Oh, it serves me right--I might 'a'
+married the lady."
+
+"Bah, that's no way for a _man_ to talk," cried Davie Paine.
+
+It all was so unreal that I felt as if I were looking at a picture. It did
+not seem as if it could be Ben Lathrop who was standing shoulder to
+shoulder with Neddie Benson and old Davie. There was running and calling on
+all sides and aloft. Blocks were creaking as the men hauled at braces and
+halyards; and when the ship rolled I saw that the men on the yard-arms were
+shaking the courses from the gaskets. Although our crew was really too
+small to work the ship and fight at the same time, it was evident that
+Roger intended so far as possible to do both.
+
+But meanwhile the junk had worn ship and she still held her position to
+windward. Suddenly there came from her deck the flash of a musket and a
+loud report. Then another and another. Then Roger's voice sounded sharply
+above the sudden clamor and our own long gun replied.
+
+Flame from its muzzle burst in the faces of the men at the bow of the junk,
+and the ball, mainly by chance, I suppose, hit her foremast and brought
+down mast and sail. Then the junk came about and bumped into us abreast,
+with a terrific crash that stove in the larboard bulwark and showered us
+with fragments of carved and gilded wood broken from her towering bow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+PIKES, CUTLASSES, AND GUNS
+
+
+As I hastily poured powder into the pan of my musket, a man sprang to our
+deck and dashed at Davie Paine, who thrust out a pike and impaled him as if
+he were a fowl on a spit, then reached for a musket. Another came and
+another; I saw them leap down singly. One of our new men whom we had signed
+at Canton raised his cutlass and sliced down the third man to board us;
+then they came on in an overwhelming stream.
+
+Seeing that it would be suicide to attempt to maintain our ground, and that
+we already were cut off from the party on the quarter-deck, we retreated
+forward, fighting off the enemy as we went, and ten or a dozen of us took
+our stand on the forecastle.
+
+Kipping and Falk and the beach-combers they had gathered together had
+conducted their campaign well. Some half of us were forward, half aft, so
+that we could not fire on the boarders without danger of hitting our own
+men. Davie Paine clubbed his musket and felled a strange white man, and
+Neddie Benson went down with a bullet through his thigh; then the pirates
+surged forward and almost around us. Before we realized what was happening,
+we had been forced back away from Neddie and had retreated to the
+knightheads. We saw a beast of a yellow ruffian stab Neddie with a kris,
+then one of our own men saw a chance to dart back under the very feet of
+our enemies and lay hold of Neddie's collar and drag him groaning up to us.
+
+They came at us hotly, and we fought them off with pikes and cutlasses; but
+we were breathing hard now and our arms ached and our feet slipped. The
+circle of steel blades was steadily drawing closer.
+
+That the end of our voyage had come, I was convinced, but I truly was not
+afraid to die. It was no credit to me; simply in the heat of action I found
+no time for fear. Parry and slash! Slash and parry! Blood was in my eyes. A
+cut burned across my right hand. My musket had fallen underfoot and I
+wielded a rusty blade that some one else had dropped. Fortunately the flesh
+wound I got from the musket-ball in our other battle had healed cleanly,
+and no lameness handicapped me.
+
+We had no idea what was going on aft, and for my own part I supposed that
+Roger and the rest were in straits as sore as our own; but suddenly a
+tremendous report almost deafened us, and when our opponents turned to see
+what had happened we got an instant's breathing-space.
+
+"It's the stern-chasers," Davie gasped. "They've faced 'em round!"
+
+The light of a torch flared up and I saw shadowy shapes darting this way
+and that.
+
+There were two cannon; but only one shot had been fired.
+
+Suddenly Davie seized me by the shoulder. "See! See there!" he cried
+hoarsely in my ear.
+
+I turned and followed his finger with my eyes. High on the stern of the
+junk, black against the starlit sky, I saw the unmistakable figure of
+Kipping. He was laughing--mildly. The outline of his body and the posture
+and motion of his head and shoulders all showed it. Then he leaped to the
+deck and we lost sight of him. Where he had mustered that horde of
+slant-eyed pirates, we never stopped to wonder. We had no time for idle
+questions.
+
+I know that I, for one, finding time during the lull in the fighting to
+appraise our chances, expected to die there and then. A vastly greater
+force was attacking us, and we were divided as well as outnumbered. But if
+we were to die, we were determined to die fighting; so with our backs to
+the bulwark and with whatever weapons we had been able to snatch up in our
+hands, we defended ourselves as best we could and had no more respite to
+think of what was going on aft.
+
+Only one stern gun, you remember, had been fired. Now the second spoke.
+
+There was a yell of anguish as the ball cut through the midst of the
+pirates, a tremendous crash that followed almost instantly the report of
+the cannon, a sort of brooding hush, then a thunderous reverberation
+compared with which all other noises of the night had been as nothing.
+
+Tongues of flame sprang skyward and a ghastly light shot far out on the
+sea. The junk heaved back, settled, turned slowly over and seemed to spread
+out into a great mass of wreckage. Pieces of timber and plank and spar came
+tumbling down and a few men scrambled to our decks. We could hear others
+crying out in the water, as they swam here and there or grasped at planks
+and beams to keep themselves afloat.
+
+
+The cannon ball had penetrated the side of the junk and had exploded a
+great store of gunpowder.
+
+Part of the wreckage of the junk was burning, and the flames threw a red
+glare over the strange scene aboard the ship, where the odds had been so
+suddenly altered. Our assailants, who but a moment before had had us at
+their mercy, now were confounded by the terrific blow they had received;
+instead of fighting the more bravely because no retreat was left them, they
+were confused and did not know which way to turn.
+
+Davie Paine, sometimes so slow-witted, seemed now to grasp the situation
+with extraordinary quickness. "Come on, lads," he bellowed, "we've got 'em
+by the run."
+
+Again clubbing his musket, he leaped into the gangway so ferociously that
+the pirates scrambled over the side, brown men and white, preferring to
+take their chances in the sea. As he charged on, I lost sight of him in the
+maelstrom of struggling figures. On my left a Lascar was fighting for his
+life against one of our new crew. On every side men were splashing and
+shouting and cursing.
+
+Now, high above the uproar, I heard a voice, at once familiar and strange.
+For a moment I could not place it; it had a wild note that baffled me. Then
+I saw black Frank, cleaver in hand, come bounding out of the darkness. His
+arms and legs, like the legs of some huge tarantula, flew out at all angles
+as he ran, and in fierce gutturals he was yelling over and over again:--
+
+"Whar's dat Kipping?"
+
+He peered this way and that.
+
+"Whar's dat Kipping?"
+
+Out of the corner of my eye I saw some one stir by the deck-house, and the
+negro, seeing him at the same moment, leaped at my own conclusion.
+
+In doubt whither to flee, too much of a coward at heart either to throw
+himself overboard or to face his enemy if there was any chance of escape,
+the unhappy Kipping hesitated one second too long. With a mighty lunge the
+negro caught him by the throat, and for a moment the two swayed back and
+forth in the open space between us and our enemies.
+
+I thought of the night when they had fought together in the galley door.
+Momentarily Kipping seemed actually to hold his own against the mad negro;
+but his strength was of despair and almost at once we saw that it was
+failing.
+
+"Stop!" Kipping cried. "I'll yield! Stop--stop! Don't kill me!"
+
+For a moment the negro hesitated. He seemed bewildered; his very passion
+seemed to waver. Then I saw that Kipping, all the while holding the negro's
+wrist with his left hand, was fumbling for his sheath-knife with his right.
+With basest treachery he was about to knife his assailant at the very
+instant when he himself was crying for quarter. My shout of warning was
+lost in the general uproar; but the negro, though taken off his guard, had
+himself perceived Kipping's intentions.
+
+By a sudden jerk he shook Kipping's hand off his wrist and raised high his
+sharp weapon.
+
+From the shadow of the deck-house one of Kipping's own adherents sprang to
+his rescue, but Davie Paine--blundering old Davie!--knocked him flat.
+
+For an instant the cook's weapon shone bright in the glare of the torches.
+Kipping snatched vainly at the black wrist above him, then jerked his knife
+clean out of the sheath--but too late.
+
+"Ah got you now, you pow'ful fighter, you! Ah got you now, you dirty scut!"
+the cook yelled, and with one blow of his cleaver he split Kipping's skull
+to the chin.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+When at last we braced the yards and drew away from the shattered fragments
+of the junk, which were drifting out to sea, we found that of the lawless
+company that so confidently had expected to murder us all, only five living
+men, one of whom was Captain Nathan Falk, were left aboard. They were a
+glum and angry little band of prisoners.
+
+Lights and voices ashore indicated that some of our assailants had saved
+themselves, and by their cries and confused orders we knew that they in
+turn were rescuing others. Of their dead we had no record, but the number
+must have been large.
+
+Of us six who had defied Falk in that time long ago, which we had come to
+regard almost as ancient history, only Neddie Benson had fallen. Although
+we had laughed time and again at the charming plump lady who had prophesied
+such terrible events, it had proved in bitter earnest a sad last voyage for
+Neddie.
+
+From the low and distant land there continued to come what seemed to be
+only faint whispers of sound, yet we knew that they really were the cries
+of men fighting for their lives where the sea beat against the shore.
+
+"Ah wonder," said the cook, grimly, "how dem yeh scalliwaggles gwine git
+along come Judgment when Gab'el blows his ho'n and Peter rattles his keys
+and all de wicked is a-wailin' and a-weepin' and a-gnashin' and can't git
+in nohow. Yass, sah. Ah guess dis yeh ol' nigger, he's gwine sit on de
+pearly gate and twiddle his toes at 'em."
+
+He folded his arms and stood in the lantern light, with a dreamy expression
+on his grotesque face such as I had seen there once or twice before. When
+he glanced at me with that strange affection shining from his great eyes,
+he seemed like some big, benign dog. Never had I seen a calmer man. It
+seemed impossible that passion ever had contorted those homely black
+features.
+
+But the others were discussing the fate of our prisoners. I heard Roger
+say, "Let me look at them, Mr. Cledd. I'll know them--some of them anyway.
+Ah, Captain Falk? And the carpenter? Well, well, well! We hadn't dared hope
+for the pleasure of your company on the return voyage. In fact, we'd quite
+given it up. I may add that we'd reconciled ourselves to the loss of it."
+
+I now edged toward them, followed by the cook.
+
+"Ay, Mr. Hamlin, it's all very well for you to talk like that," Falk
+replied in a trembling voice from which all arrogance had not yet vanished.
+"I'm lawful master of this here vessel, as you very well know. You're
+nothing but a mutineer and a pirate. Go ahead and kill me! Why don't you?
+You know I can tell a story that will send you to the gallows. What have I
+done, but try to get back the owners' property and defend it? To think that
+I could have knocked you and that addle-pated Ben Lathrop on the head any
+day I wished! And I wished it, too, but Kipping he said--"
+
+Falk stopped suddenly.
+
+"So Kipping had a finger in the pie, did he?" said Roger. "Well, Mr. Falk,
+what did Kipping say?"
+
+Falk bit his lip sullenly and remained silent.
+
+There really was something pathetic in the man's plight. He had been
+ambitious, and ambition alone, which often is a virtue, had gone far to
+contribute to his downfall. In many ways he was so weak! A quality that in
+other men might have led to almost anything good, in him had bred
+resentment and trickery and at last downright crime. He stood there now,
+ruined in his profession, the leader of a defeated band of criminals and
+vagabonds. Yet if he had succeeded in capturing the ship and putting the
+rest of us to death, he could have sailed her home to Salem, and by
+spreading his own version of the mutiny have gained great credit, and
+probably promotion, for himself.
+
+"Well, Chips," said Roger, "I hope you, at least, are pleased with your
+prospects."
+
+The carpenter likewise made no reply.
+
+"Hm, Mr. Cledd, they haven't a great deal to say, have they?"
+
+"Aha," the negro murmured just behind me, "dey's got fine prospec's, dey
+has. Dey's gwine dance, dey is, yass, sah, on de end of a rope, and after
+dey's done dance a while dey's gwine be leetle che'ubs, dey is, and flap
+dey wings and sing sweet on a golden harp. Yass, sah."
+
+The carpenter shot an angry glance at the cook, but no one else paid him
+any attention.
+
+A fire was flaming now on the distant shore. The seas rushed and gurgled
+along the side of the ship. Our lights dipped with the rigging as the ship
+rolled and tossed, now lifting her dripping sides high out of water, now
+plunging them again deep into the trough.
+
+"Mr. Cledd, I think we can spare those five men a boat," Roger said, after
+a time.
+
+"You're not going to let them go!" Mr. Cledd exclaimed.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Mr. Cledd raised his eyebrows, but silently acceded.
+
+I thought that an expression of relief crossed Falk's face, yet dismay was
+mingled with it. Those were dark, inhospitable lands to leeward. The
+carpenter opened his mouth as if to speak, closed it without a word, and
+vacantly stared at Roger. The rest of us exchanged glances of surprise.
+
+When we had hove to, they lowered the boat, fumbling at the falls while
+they did so, as if they were afraid to leave the ship. The seas caught the
+boat and bumped it against the side, but Falk still lingered, even when
+Roger indicated by a gesture that he was to go.
+
+"Ay," he cried, "it's over the side and away. You're sending us to our
+death, Mr. Hamlin."
+
+"To your death?" said Roger. "Sir, do you wish to return with us to Salem?"
+
+Falk glared sullenly, but made no reply.
+
+"Sir," Roger repeated sharply, "do you wish to return with us to Salem?"
+
+Still there was no response.
+
+"Ah, I thought not. Stay here, if you wish. I shall have you put in irons;
+I should not be justified in any other course. But in Salem we'll lay our
+two stories before the owners--ay, and before the law. Then, sir, if you
+are in the right and I am in the wrong, your triumph will repay you many
+times over for the discomforts of a few months in irons. No? Will you not
+come?"
+
+Still Falk did not reply.
+
+"Sir," Roger sternly cried, "if I were to take you back a prisoner to
+Salem, you'd go to the gallows by way of the courts. Here you can steer
+your own course--though in all probability the port will be the same."
+
+Without another word Falk went over the side, and down by the chains to the
+boat that was bumping below. But before we cast off the painter, he looked
+up at us in the light of a lantern that some one held over the bulwark and
+cried bitterly, "I hope, Mr. Hamlin, you're satisfied now. I'm rightful
+master of that vessel in spite of all your high-handed tricks."
+
+For the first time I noticed the marks of wounds that he had got in the
+fight off the island. His face was white and his eyes were at once fierce
+and hunted.
+
+"You're mistaken," Roger replied. "I have papers from the firm's agent that
+appoint me as master." Then he laughed softly and added, "But any time you
+wish to carry our little dispute to the courts, you'll find me ready and
+willing to meet you there. Too ready, Mr. Falk, for your own good. No, Mr.
+Falk, it's better for you that you leave us here. Go your own gait. May you
+fare better than you deserve!"
+
+We cast off the painter, and they rowed into the dark toward the shore of
+Java. They were men of broken fortunes, whose only hope for life lay in a
+land infested with cut-throat desperadoes. I thought of Kipping who lay
+dead on our deck. It seemed to me after all that Falk had got the worse
+punishment; he had aspired to better things; weak though he was, there had
+been the possibility of much good in his future. Now his career was
+shattered; never again could he go home to his own country.
+
+Yet when all was said and done, it was more merciful to set him adrift than
+to bring him home to trial. Though he must suffer, he would suffer alone.
+The punishment that he so fully deserved would not be made more bitter by
+his knowing that all who knew him knew of his ruined life.
+
+"Poor Falk!" I thought, and was amazed at myself for thinking almost kindly
+of him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+"SO ENDS"
+
+
+Through the watches that followed I passed as if everything were unreal;
+they were like a succession of nightmares, and to this day they are no more
+than shadows on my memory. Working in silence, the men laid the dead on
+clean canvas and washed down the decks; cut away wreckage, cleared the
+running rigging, and replaced with new sails those that had been cut or
+burned in battle. Then came the new day with its new duties; and a sad day
+it was for those of us who had stood together through so many hardships,
+when Neddie Benson went over the side with a prayer to speed him. We were
+homeward bound with all sail set, but things that actually had happened
+already seemed incredible, and concerning the future we could only
+speculate.
+
+We had gone a long way on our journey toward the Cape of Good Hope before
+our new carpenter had repaired the broken bulwark and the various other
+damages the ship had suffered, and before the rigging was thoroughly
+restored. Weeks passed, their monotony broken only by the sight of an
+occasional sail; days piled on end, morning and night, night and morning,
+until weeks had become months. In the fullness of time we rounded Good
+Hope, and now swiftly with fair winds, now slowly with foul, we worked up
+to the equator, then home across the North Atlantic.
+
+On the afternoon of a bright day in the fall, more than a year after we
+first had set sail, we passed Baker Island and stood up Salem Harbor.
+
+Bleak and bare though they were, the rough, rocky shores were home. To
+those of us who hailed from Salem, every roof and tree gave welcome after
+an absence of eighteen months. Already, we knew, reports of our approach
+would have spread far and wide. Probably a dozen good old captains,
+sweeping the sea, each with his glass on his "captain's walk," had sighted
+our topsails while we were hull down and had cried out that Joseph Whidden
+was home again. Such was the penetration of seafaring men in those good old
+days when they recognized a ship and its master while as yet they could spy
+nothing more than topgallantsails.
+
+We could see the people gathering along the shore and lining the wharf and
+calling and cheering and waving hands. We thought of our comrades whom we
+had left in far seas; we longed and feared to ask a thousand questions
+about those at home, of whom we had thought so tenderly and so often.
+
+Already boats were putting out to greet us; and now, in the foremost of
+them, one of the younger Websters stood up. "Mr. Hamlin, ahoy!" he called,
+seeing Roger on the quarter-deck. "Where is Captain Whidden?"
+
+Roger did not answer until the boat had come fairly close under the rail,
+and meanwhile young Webster stood looking up at him as if more than half
+expecting bad news.
+
+Only when the boat was so near that each could see the other's expression
+and hear every inflection of the other's voice, did Roger reply.
+
+"He is dead."
+
+"We heard a story," young Webster cried in great excitement, coming briskly
+aboard. "One Captain Craigie, brig Eve late from Bencoolen, brought it. An
+appalling tale of murder and mutiny. As he had it, the men mutinied against
+Mr. Thomas and against Mr. Falk when he assumed command. They seized the
+ship and killed Mr. Thomas and marooned Mr. Falk, who, while Captain
+Craigie was thereabouts, hustled a crew of fire-eating Malays and white
+adventurers and bought a dozen barrels of powder and set sail with a fleet
+of junks to retake the ship. But that, of course, is stuff and nonsense.
+Where's Falk?"
+
+"Falk," said Roger with a wry smile, "decided to spend the rest of his days
+at the Straits."
+
+"Oh!" Young Webster looked hard at Roger and then looked around the deck.
+All was ship-shape, but there were many strange faces.
+
+"Oh," he said again. "And you--" He stopped short.
+
+"And I?" Roger repeated.
+
+Again young Webster looked around the ship. He bit his lip. "What is _your_
+story, Mr. Hamlin?" he said sharply.
+
+"Is your father here, Mr. Webster?" Roger asked.
+
+"No," the young man replied stiffly, "he is at Newburyport, but I have no
+doubt whatsoever that he will return at once when he hears you have
+arrived. This seems to be a strange situation, Mr. Hamlin. Who is in
+command here?"
+
+"I am, sir."
+
+"Oh!" After a time he added, "I heard rumors, but I refused to credit
+them."
+
+"What do you mean by that, sir?" Roger asked.
+
+"Oh, nothing much, sir. You evaded my question. What is _your_ story?"
+
+"_My_ story?" Roger looked him squarely in the eye. In Roger's own eyes
+there was the glint of his old humorous twinkle, and I knew that the young
+man's bustling self-importance amused him.
+
+"My story?" Roger repeated. "Why, such a story as I have to tell, I'll tell
+your father when I report to him."
+
+Young Webster reddened. "Oh!" he said with a sarcastic turn of his voice.
+"Stuff and nonsense! It may be--or it may not." And with that he stationed
+himself by the rail and said no more.
+
+When at last we had come to anchor and young Webster had gone hastily
+ashore and we had exchanged greetings at a distance with a number of
+acquaintances, Roger and Mr. Cledd and I sat down--perhaps more promptly
+than need be--over our accounts in the great cabin. I felt bitterly
+disappointed that none of my own people had come to welcome me; but
+realizing how silly it was to think that they surely must know of our
+arrival, I jumped at Roger's suggestion that we gather up our various
+documents and then leave Mr. Cledd in charge--he was not a Salem man--and
+hurry home as fast as we could go.
+
+As we bent to our work, Mr. Cledd remarked with a dry smile, "I'm thinking,
+sir, there's going to be more of a sting to this pirate-and-mutiny business
+than I'd believed. That smug, sarcastic young man means trouble or I've no
+eye for weather."
+
+"He's the worst of all the Websters," Roger replied thoughtfully. "And I'll
+confess that Captain Craigie's story knocks the wind out of _my_ canvas.
+Who'd have looked for a garbled story of our misfortunes to outsail us?
+However,--" he shook his head and brushed away all such anxieties,--"time
+will tell. Now, gentlemen, to our accounts."
+
+Before we had more than got well started, I heard a voice on deck that
+brought me to my feet.
+
+There was a step on the companionway, and then, "Father!" I cried, and
+leaped up with an eagerness that, boy-like, I thought I concealed with
+painstaking dignity when I shook his hand.
+
+"Come, come, come, you young rascals!" my father cried. "What's the meaning
+of this? First hour in the home port and you are as busy at your books as
+if you were old students like myself. Come, put by your big books and your
+ledgers, lads. Roger, much as I hate to have to break bad news, your family
+are all in Boston, so--more joy to us!--there's nothing left but you shall
+come straight home with Benny here. Unless, that is--" my father's eyes
+twinkled just as Roger's sometimes did--"unless you've more urgent business
+elsewhere."
+
+"I thank you, sir," said Roger, "but I have _no_ more urgent business, and
+I shall be--well, delighted doesn't half express it."
+
+His manner was collected enough, but at my father's smile he reddened and
+his own eyes danced.
+
+"Pack away your books and come along, then. There's some one will be glad
+to see you besides Benny's mother. Leave work till morning. I'll wager come
+sun-up you'll be glad enough to get to your tasks if you've had a little
+home life meanwhile. Come, lads, come."
+
+Almost before we fully could realize what it meant, we were walking up to
+the door of my own home, and there was my mother standing on the threshold,
+and my sister, her face as pink now as it had been white on the day long
+ago when she had heard that Roger was to sail as supercargo.
+
+Many times more embarrassed than Roger, whom I never had suspected of such
+shamelessness, I promptly turned my back on him and my sister; where upon
+my father laughed aloud and drew me into the house. From the hall I saw
+the dining-table laid with our grandest silver, and, over all, the
+towering candle-sticks that were brought forth only on state occasions.
+
+"And now, lads," said my father, when we sat before such a meal as only
+returning prodigals can know, "what's this tale of mutiny and piracy with
+which the town's been buzzing these two weeks past? Trash, of course."
+
+"Why, sir, I think we've done the right thing," said Roger, "and yet I
+can't say that it's trash."
+
+When my father had heard the story he said so little that he frightened me;
+and my mother and sister exchanged anxious glances.
+
+"Of course," Roger added, "we are convinced absolutely, and if that fellow
+hadn't got away at Whampoa, we'd have proof of Kipping's part in it--"
+
+"But he got away," my father interposed, "and I question if his word is
+good for much, in any event. Poor Joseph Whidden! We were boys together."
+
+He shortly left the table, and a shadow seemed to have fallen over us. We
+ate in silence, and after supper Roger and my sister went into the garden
+together. What, I wondered, was to become of us now?
+
+That night I dreamed of courts and judges and goodness knows what penalties
+of the law, and woke, and dreamed again, and slept uneasily until the
+unaccustomed sound of some one pounding on our street door waked me in the
+early morning.
+
+After a time a servant answered the loudly repeated summons. Low voices
+followed, then I heard my father open his own door and go out into the
+hall.
+
+"Is that you, Tom Webster?" he called.
+
+"It is. I'm told you've two of my men here in hiding. Rout 'em out. What
+brand of discipline do you call this? All hands laying a-bed at four in the
+morning. I've been up all night. Called by messenger just as I turned in at
+that confounded tavern, charged full price for a night's lodging,--curse
+that skinflint Hodges!--and took a coach that brought me to Salem as fast
+as it could clip over the road. I'm too fat to straddle a horse. Come,
+where's Hamlin and that young scamp of yours?"
+
+I scrambled out of bed and was dressing as fast as I could, when I heard
+Roger also in the hall.
+
+"Aha! Here he is," Mr. Webster cried. "Fine sea-captain you are, you young
+mutineer, laying abed at cockcrow! Come, stir a leg there. I've been aboard
+ship this morning, after a ride that was like to shake my liver into my
+boots. Where's Ben Lathrop? Come, come, you fine-young-gentleman
+supercargo."
+
+Crying, "Here I am," I pulled on my boots and joined the others in the
+lower hall, and the three of us, Mr. Webster, Roger, and I, hurried down
+the street in time to the old man's testy exclamations, which burst out
+fervently and often profanely whenever his lame foot struck the
+ground harder than usual. "Pirates--mutineers--young cubs--laying abed--
+cockcrow--" and so on, until we were in a boat and out on the harbor, where
+the Island Princess towered above the morning mist.
+
+"Lathrop'll row us," the old man snapped out. "Good for him--stretch his
+muscles."
+
+Coming aboard the ship, we hailed the watch and went directly to the cabin.
+
+"Now," the old man cried, "bring out your log-book and your papers."
+
+He slowly scanned the pages of the log and looked at our accounts with a
+searching gaze that noted every figure, dot and comma. After a time he
+said, "Tell me everything."
+
+It was indeed a strange story that Roger told, and I thought that I read
+incredulity in the old man's eyes; but he did not interrupt the narrative
+from beginning to end. When it was done, he spread his great hands on the
+table and shot question after question, first at one of us, then at the
+other, indicating by his glance which he wished to answer him.
+
+"When first did you suspect Falk?--What proof had you?--Did Captain Whidden
+know anything from the start?--How do you know that Falk was laying for Mr.
+Thomas?--Do you know the penalty for mutiny?--Do you know the penalty for
+piracy?--Hand out your receipts for all money paid over at Canton.--Who in
+thunder gave you command of my ship?--Do you appreciate the seriousness of
+overthrowing the lawful captain?--How in thunder did you force that paper
+out of Johnston?"
+
+His vehemence and anger seemed to grow as he went on, and for twenty
+minutes he snapped out his questions till it seemed as if we were facing a
+running fire of musketry. His square, smooth-shaven chin was thrust out
+between his bushy side-whiskers, and his eyes shot fiercely, first at
+Roger, then at me.
+
+A small swinging lantern lighted the scene. Its rays made the corners seem
+dark and remote. They fell on the rough features of the old merchant
+mariner who owned the ship and who so largely controlled our fortunes,
+making him seem more irascible than ever, and faded out in the early
+morning light that came in through the deadlights.
+
+At last he placed his hands each on the opposite shoulder, planted his
+elbows on the table, and fiercely glared at us while he demanded, "Have you
+two young men stopped yet to think how it'll seem to be hanged?"
+
+The lantern swung slowly during the silence that followed. The shadows
+swayed haltingly from side to side.
+
+"No," cried Roger hotly, "we have not, Captain Webster. We've been too busy
+looking after _your_ interests."
+
+The scar where the case-knife had slashed his cheek so long ago stood
+starkly out from the dull red of his face.
+
+At that the old man threw back his head and burst into a great guffaw of
+laughter. He laughed until the lantern trembled, until his chair leaned so
+far back that I feared he was about to fall,--or hoped he was,--until it
+seemed as if the echoes must come booming back from the farthest shore.
+
+"Lads, lads!" he cried, "you're good lads. You're the delight of an old
+man's heart! You've done fine! Roger Hamlin, I've a new ship to be finished
+this summer. You shall be master, if you'll be so kind, for an old man that
+wishes you well, and"--here he slyly winked at me--"on the day you take a
+wife, there'll come to your bride a kiss and a thousand dollars in gold
+from Thomas Webster. As for Ben, here, he's done fine as supercargo of the
+old Island Princess,--them are good accounts, boy,--and I'll recommend he
+sails in the new ship with you."
+
+He stopped short then and looked away as if through the bulkhead and over
+the sea as far, perhaps, as Sunda Strait, and the long line of Sunda
+Islands bending like a curved blade to guard the mysteries of the East
+against such young adventurers as we.
+
+After a time he said in a very different voice, "I was warned of one man in
+the crew, just after you sailed." His fingers beat a dull tattoo on the
+polished table. "It was too late then to help matters, so I said never a
+word--not even to my own sons. But--" the old man's voice hardened--"if
+Nathan Falk ever again sets foot on American soil he'll hang higher than
+ever Haman hung, if I have to build the gallows with my own two hands, Mr.
+Hamlin--ay, he or any man of his crew. The law and I'll work together to
+that end, Mr. Hamlin."
+
+So for a long time we sat and talked of one thing and another.
+
+When at last we went on deck, Mr. Cledd spoke to Roger of something that
+had happened early in the watch. I approached them idly, overheard a phrase
+or two and joined them.
+
+"It was the cook," Mr. Cledd was saying. "He was trying to sneak aboard in
+the dark. I don't think he had been drinking. I can't understand it. He had
+a big bag of dried apples and said that was all he went for. I don't like
+to discipline a man so late in the voyage."
+
+"Let it pass," Roger replied. "Cook's done good work for us."
+
+I didn't understand then what it meant; but later in the day I heard some
+one say softly, "Mistah Lathrop, Ah done got an apple pie, yass, sah. Young
+gen'lems dey jest got to have pie. You jest come long with dis yeh ol'
+nigger."
+
+There were tears in my eyes when I saw the great pie that the old African
+had baked. I urged him to share it with me, and though for a time he
+refused, at last he hesitantly consented. "Ah dunno," he remarked, "Ah
+dunno as Ah had ought to. Pies, dey's foh young gen'lems and officers, but
+dis yeh is a kind of ambigoo-cous pie--yass, sah, seeing you say so, Ah
+will."
+
+Never did eating bread and salt together pledge a stronger or more enduring
+friendship. To this very day I have the tenderest regard for the old man
+with whom I had passed so many desperate hours.
+
+That old Blodgett and Davie Paine should take our gifts to "the tiny wee
+girl" at Newburyport we all agreed, when they asked the privilege. "It
+ain't but a wee bit to do for a good ship-mate," Blodgett remarked with a
+deprecatory wave of his hand. "I'd do more 'n that for the memory of old
+Bill Hayden." And just before he left for the journey he cautiously
+confided to me, "I've got a few more little tricks I picked up at that 'ere
+temple. It don't do to talk about such trinkets,--not that I'm
+superstitious,--but she'll never tell if she don't know where they come
+from. Ah, Mr. Lathrop, it's sad to lose a fortune, and that's what we done
+when we let all them heathen islands go without a good Christian expedition
+to destroy the idols and relieve them of their ill-gotten gains."
+
+The two departed side by side, with their bundles swung over their
+shoulders. They and the cook had received double wages to reward their
+loyal service, and they carried handsome presents for the little girl of
+whom we had heard so much; but it was a sad mission for which they had
+offered themselves. No gift on all the green earth could take the place of
+poor, faithful old Bill, the father who was never coming home.
+
+That night, when Roger and I again went together to my own father's house,
+eager to tell the news of our good fortune, we found my mother and my
+sister in the garden waiting for us. I was not wise enough then to
+understand that the tears in my mother's eyes were for a young boy and a
+young girl whom she had had but yesterday, but of whom now only memories
+remained--memories, and a youth and a woman grown. Nor could I read the
+future and see the ships of the firm of Hamlin and Lathrop sailing every
+sea. I only thought to myself, as I saw Roger stand straight and tall
+beside my sister, with the white scar on his face, that _there_ was a
+brother of whom I could be proud.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mutineers, by Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUTINEERS ***
+
+This file should be named 7mutn10.txt or 7mutn10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7mutn11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7mutn10a.txt
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Lazar Liveanu
+and the PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/7mutn10.zip b/old/7mutn10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..952ff0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/7mutn10.zip
diff --git a/old/8mutn10.txt b/old/8mutn10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a7e65e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8mutn10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8709 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mutineers, by Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Mutineers
+
+Author: Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9657]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 13, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUTINEERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Lazar Liveanu
+and the PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE MUTINEERS
+
+
+
+_A tale of old days at sea and of adventures in the Far East as Benjamin
+Lathrop set it down some sixty years ago_
+
+
+
+by Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+
+
+
+
+_Illustrated_
+
+
+
+
+_To_ D.C.H.
+
+
+
+
+_TO PAY MY SHOT_
+
+
+_To master, mate, and men of the ship Hunter, whose voyage is the backbone
+of my story; to Captain David Woodard, English mariner, who more than a
+hundred and twenty years ago was wrecked on the island of Celebes; to
+Captain R.G.F. Candage of Brookline, Massachusetts, who was party to the
+original contract in melon seeds; and to certain blue-water skippers who
+have left sailing directions for eastern ports and seas, I am grateful for
+fascinating narratives and journals, and indebted for incidents in this
+tale of an earlier generation._
+
+_C.B.H._
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I
+IN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA
+
+    I My Father and I Call on Captain Whidden
+   II Bill Hayden
+  III The Man Outside the Galley
+   IV A Piece of Pie
+    V Kipping
+
+
+II
+IN WHICH WE ENCOUNTER AN ARAB SHIP
+
+   VI The Council in the Cabin
+
+  VII The Sail with a Lozenge-Shaped Patch
+ VIII Attacked
+   IX Bad Signs
+    X The Treasure-Seeker
+
+
+
+III
+WHICH APPROACHES A CRISIS
+
+   XI A Hundred Thousand Dollars in Gold
+  XII A Strange Tale
+ XIII Trouble Forward
+  XIV Bill Hayden Comes to the End of His Voyage
+
+
+
+IV
+IN WHICH THE TIDE OF OUR FORTUNES EBBS
+
+   XV Mr. Falk Tries to Cover His Tracks
+  XVI A Prayer for the Dead
+ XVII Marooned
+XVIII Adventures Ashore
+
+
+
+V
+IN WHICH THE TIDE TURNS
+
+  XIX In Last Resort
+   XX A Story in Melon Seeds
+  XXI New Allies
+ XXII We Attack
+XXIII What We Found in the Cabin
+
+
+
+VI
+IN WHICH WE REACH THE PORT OF OUR DESTINATION
+
+ XXIV Falk Proposes a Truce
+  XXV Including a Cross-Examination
+ XXVI An Attempt to Play on Our Sympathy
+XXVII We Reach Whampoa, but Not the End of Our Troubles
+
+
+
+VII
+OLD SCORES AND NEW AND A DOUBTFUL WELCOME
+
+XXVIII A Mystery Is Solved and a Thief Gets Away
+ XXIX Homeward Bound
+  XXX Through Sunda Strait
+ XXXI Pikes, Cutlasses, and Guns
+XXXII "So Ends"
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"_At 'em, men! At 'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull_!"
+
+_Suddenly, in the brief silence that followed the two thunderous reports, a
+pistol shot rang out sharply, and I saw Captain Whidden spin round and
+fall_.
+
+_We helped him pile his belongings into his chest ... and gave him a hand
+on deck_.
+
+"_Sign that statement, Lathrop," said Captain Falk_.
+
+_He cut from the melon-rind a roughly shaped model of a ship and stuck in
+it, to represent masts, three slivers of bamboo_.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_At 'em, men! At 'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull_!"]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+IN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MY FATHER AND I CALL ON CAPTAIN WHIDDEN
+
+
+My father's study, as I entered it on an April morning in 1809, to learn
+his decision regarding a matter that was to determine the course of all my
+life, was dim and spacious and far removed from the bustle and clamor of
+the harbor-side. It was a large room paneled with dark wood. There were
+books along the walls, and paintings of ships, and over the fireplace there
+stood a beautiful model of a Burmese junk, carved by some brown artist on
+the bank of the Irawadi.
+
+My father sat by the open window and looked out into the warm sunshine,
+which was swiftly driving the last snow from the hollows under the
+shrubbery.
+
+Already crocuses were blossoming in the grass of the year before, which was
+still green in patches, and the bright sun and the blue sky made the study
+seem to me, entering, dark and sombre. It was characteristic of my father,
+I thought with a flash of fancy, to sit there and look out into a warm, gay
+world where springtime was quickening the blood and sunshine lay warm on
+the flowers; he always had lived in old Salem, and as he wrote his sermons,
+he always had looked out through study windows on a world of commerce
+bright with adventure. For my own part, I was of no mind to play the
+spectator in so stirring a drama.
+
+With a smile he turned at my step. "So, my son, you wish to ship before the
+mast," he said, in a repressed voice and manner that seemed in keeping with
+the dim, quiet room. "Pray what do you know of the sea?"
+
+I thought the question idle, for all my life I had lived where I could look
+from my window out on the harbor.
+
+"Why, sir," I replied, "I know enough to realize that I want to follow the
+sea."
+
+"To follow the sea?"
+
+There was something in my father's eyes that I could not understand. He
+seemed to be dreaming, as if of voyages that he himself had made. Yet I
+knew he never had sailed blue water. "Well, why not?" he asked suddenly.
+"There was a time--"
+
+I was too young to realize then what has come to me since: that my father's
+manner revealed a side of his nature that I never had known; that in his
+own heart was a love of adventure that he never had let me see. My sixteen
+years had given me a big, strong body, but no great insight, and I thought
+only of my own urgent desire of the moment.
+
+"Many a boy of ten or twelve has gone to sea," I said, "and the Island
+Princess will sail in a fortnight. If you were to speak to Captain
+Whidden--"
+
+My father sternly turned on me. "No son of mine shall climb through the
+cabin windows."
+
+"But Captain Whidden--"
+
+"I thought you desired to follow the sea--to ship before the mast."
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then say no more of Captain Whidden. If you wish to go to sea, well and
+good. I'll not stand in your way. But we'll seek no favoritism, you and I.
+You'll ship as boy, but you'll take your medicine like a man."
+
+"Yes, sir," I said, trying perversely to conceal my joy.
+
+"And as for Captain Whidden," my father added, "you'll find he cuts a very
+different figure aboard ship from that he shows in our drawing-room."
+
+Then a smile twinkled through his severity, and he laid his hand firmly on
+my shoulder.
+
+"Son, you have my permission ungrudgingly given. There was a time--well,
+your grandfather didn't see things as I did."
+
+"But some day," I cried, "I'll have a counting-house of my own--
+some day--"
+
+My father laughed kindly, and I, taken aback, blushed at my own eagerness.
+
+"Anyway," I persisted, "Roger Hamlin is to go as supercargo."
+
+"Roger--as supercargo?" exclaimed a low voice.
+
+I turned and saw that my sister stood in the door.
+
+"Where--when is he going?"
+
+"To Canton on the Island Princess! And so am I," I cried.
+
+"Oh!" she said. And she stood there, silent and a little pale.
+
+"You'll not see much of Roger," my father remarked to me, still smiling. He
+had a way of enjoying a quiet joke at my expense, to him the more pleasing
+because I never was quite sure just wherein the humor lay.
+
+"But I'm going," I cried. "I'm going--I'm going--I'm going!"
+
+"At the end of the voyage," said my father, "we'll find out whether you
+still wish to follow the sea. After all, I'll go with you this evening,
+when supper is done, to see Joseph Whidden."
+
+The lamps were lighted when we left the house, and long beams from the
+windows fell on the walk and on the road. We went down the street side by
+side, my father absently swinging his cane, I wondering if it were not
+beneath the dignity of a young man about to go to sea that his parent
+should accompany him on such an errand.
+
+Just as we reached the corner, a man who had come up the street a little
+distance behind us turned in at our own front gate, and my father, seeing
+me look back when the gate slammed, smiled and said, "I'll venture a guess,
+Bennie-my-lad, that some one named Roger is calling at our house this
+evening."
+
+Afterwards--long, long afterwards--I remembered the incident.
+
+When my father let the knocker fall against Captain Whidden's great front
+door, my heart, it seemed to me, echoed the sound and then danced away at a
+lively pace. A servant, whom I watched coming from somewhere behind the
+stairs, admitted us to the quiet hall; then another door opened silently, a
+brighter light shone out upon us, and a big, grave man appeared. He
+welcomed us with a few thoughtful words and, by a motion of his hand, sent
+us before him into the room where he had been sitting.
+
+"And so," said Captain Whidden, when we had explained our errand, "I am to
+have this young man aboard my ship."
+
+"If you will, sir," I cried eagerly, yet anxiously, too, for he did not
+seem nearly so well pleased as I had expected.
+
+"Yes, Ben, you may come with us to Canton; but as your father says, you
+must fill your own boots and stand on your own two feet. And will you,
+friend Lathrop,"--he turned to my father,--"hazard a venture on the
+voyage?"
+
+
+My father smiled. "I think, Joe," he said, "that I've placed a considerable
+venture in your hands already."
+
+Captain Whidden nodded. "So you have, so you have. I'll watch it as best I
+can, too, though of course I'll see little of the boy. Let him go now. I'll
+talk with you a while if I may."
+
+My father glanced at me, and I got up.
+
+Captain Whidden rose, too. "Come down in the morning," he said. "You can
+sign with us at the Websters' counting-house.--And good-bye, Ben," he
+added, extending his hand.
+
+"Good-bye? You don't mean--that I'm not to go with you?"
+
+He smiled. "It'll be a long time, Ben, before you and I meet again on quite
+such terms as these."
+
+Then I saw what he meant, and shook his hand and walked away without
+looking back. Nor did I ever learn what he and my father talked about after
+I left them there together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BILL HAYDEN
+
+
+More than two-score years and ten have come and gone since that day when I,
+Benjamin Lathrop, put out from Salem harbor, a green hand on the ship
+Island Princess, and in them I have achieved, I think I can say with due
+modesty, a position of some importance in my own world. But although
+innumerable activities have crowded to the full each intervening year,
+neither the aspirations of youth nor the successes of maturity nor the
+dignities of later life have effaced from my memory the picture of myself,
+a boy on the deck of the Island Princess in April, 1809.
+
+I thought myself very grand as the wind whipped my pantaloons against my
+ankles and flapped the ribbons of the sailor hat that I had pulled snugly
+down; and I imagined myself the hero of a thousand stirring adventures in
+the South Seas, which I should relate when I came back an able seaman at
+the very least. Never was sun so bright; never were seas so blue; never was
+ship so smart as the Island Princess.
+
+On her black hull a nicely laid band of white ran sheer from stem to stern;
+her bows swelled to meet the seas in a gentle curve that hinted the swift
+lines of our clippers of more recent years. From mainmast heel to truck,
+from ensign halyard to tip of flying jib-boom, her well-proportioned masts
+and spars and taut rigging stood up so trimly in one splendidly
+coördinating structure, that the veriest lubber must have acknowledged her
+the finest handiwork of man.
+
+It was like a play to watch the men sitting here and there on deck, or
+talking idly around the forecastle, while Captain Whidden and the chief
+mate conferred together aft. I was so much taken with it all that I had no
+eyes for my own people who were there to see me off, until straight out
+from the crowded wharf there came a young man whom I knew well. His gray
+eyes, firm lips, square chin, and broad shoulders had been familiar to me
+ever since I could remember.
+
+As he was rowed briskly to the ship, I waved to him and called out, "O
+Roger--ahoy!"
+
+I thought, when he glanced up from the boat, that his gray eyes twinkled
+and that there was the flutter of a smile on his well-formed lips; but he
+looked at me and through me and seemed not to see me, and it came over me
+all at once that from the cabin to the forecastle was many, many times the
+length of the ship.
+
+With a quick survey of the deck, as if to see who had spoken, yet seeming
+not to see me at all, Roger, who had lived all his life within a cable's
+length of the house where I was born, who had taught me to box the compass
+before I learned my ABC's, whose interest in my own sister had partly
+mystified, partly amused her younger brother--that very Roger climbed
+aboard the Island Princess and went on into the cabin without word or sign
+of recognition.
+
+It was not the first time, of course, that I had realized what my chosen
+apprenticeship involved; but the incident brought it home to me more
+clearly than ever before. No longer was I to be known as the son of Thomas
+Lathrop. In my idle dreams I had been the hero of a thousand imaginary
+adventures; instead, in the strange experiences I am about to relate, I was
+to be only the ship's "boy"--the youngest and least important member of
+that little isolated community banded together for a journey to the other
+side of the world. But I was to see things happen such as most men have
+never dreamed of; and now, after fifty years, when the others are dead and
+gone, I may write the story.
+
+When I saw that my father, who had watched Roger Hamlin with twinkling eyes
+ignore my greeting, was chuckling in great amusement, I bit my lip. What if
+Roger _was_ supercargo, I thought: he needn't feel so big.
+
+Now on the wharf there was a flutter of activity and a stir of color; now a
+louder hum of voices drifted across the intervening water. Captain Whidden
+lifted his hand in farewell to his invalid wife, who had come in her
+carriage to see him sail. The mate went forward on the forecastle and the
+second mate took his position in the waist.
+
+"Now then, Mr. Thomas," Captain Whidden called in a deep voice, "is all
+clear forward?"
+
+"All clear, sir," the mate replied; and then, with all eyes upon him, he
+took charge, as was the custom, and proceeded to work the ship.
+
+While the men paid out the riding cable and tripped it, and hove in the
+slack of the other, I stood, carried away--foolish boy!--by the thought
+that here at last I was a seaman among seamen, until at my ear the second
+mate cried sharply, "Lay forward, there, and lend a hand to cat the
+anchor."
+
+The sails flapped loose overhead; orders boomed back and forth; there was
+running and racing and hauling and swarming up the rigging; and from the
+windlass came the chanteyman's solo with its thunderous chorus:--
+
+    "Pull one and all!
+      Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men.
+    On this catfall!
+      Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men.
+    Answer the call!
+      Hoy! Hoy! Cheery men.
+    Hoy! Haulee!
+      Hoy! Hoy!!!
+        Oh, cheery men!"
+
+As the second anchor rose to the pull of the creaking windlass, we sheeted
+home the topsails, topgallantsails and royals and hoisted them up, braced
+head-yards aback and after-yards full for the port tack, hoisted the jib
+and put over the helm. Thus the Island Princess fell off by the head, as we
+catted and fished the anchor; then took the wind in her sails and slipped
+slowly out toward the open sea.
+
+Aft, by the lee rail, I saw Roger Hamlin watching the group, a little apart
+from the others, where my own people had gathered. My father stood half a
+head above the crowd, and beside him were my mother and my sister. When I,
+too, looked back at them, my father waved his hat and I knew his eyes were
+following me; I saw the flutter of white from my mother's hand, and I knew
+that her heart was going out with me to the uttermost parts of the earth.
+
+Then, almost timidly, my sister waved her handkerchief. But I saw that she
+was looking at the quarter-deck.
+
+As land fell astern until it became a thin blue line on the western
+horizon, and as the Island Princess ran free with the wind full in her
+sails, I took occasion, while I jumped back and forth in response to the
+mate's quick orders, to study curiously my shipmates in our little kingdom.
+Now that we had no means of communication with that already distant shore,
+we were a city unto ourselves.
+
+Yonder was the cook, a man as black as the bottom of his iron pot, whose
+frown, engraved deeply in his low forehead, might have marked him in my
+eyes as the villain of some melodrama of the sea, had I not known him for
+many years to be one of the most generous darkies, so far as hungry small
+boys were concerned, that ever ruled a galley. The second mate, who was now
+in the waist, I had never seen before--to tell the truth, I was glad that
+he held no better berth, for I disliked the turn of his too full lips.
+Captain Whidden and the chief mate, Mr. Thomas, I had known a long time,
+and I had thought myself on terms of friendship with them, even
+familiarity; but so far as any outward sign was concerned, I might now have
+been as great a stranger to either as to the second mate.
+
+We were twenty-two men all told: four in the cabin--Captain  Whidden, Mr.
+Thomas, Mr. Falk, and Roger, whose duties included oversight of the cargo,
+supervision of matters purely of business and trade in foreign ports, and a
+deal of clerical work that Captain Whidden had no mind to be bothered with;
+three in the steerage--the cook (contrary, perhaps, to the more usual
+custom), the steward, and the carpenter; and fourteen in the forecastle.
+
+All in all I was well pleased with my prospects, and promised myself that I
+would "show them a thing or two," particularly Roger Hamlin. I'd make a
+name for myself aboard the Island Princess. I'd let all the men know that
+it would not take Benjamin Lathrop long to become as smart a seaman as
+they'd hope to see.
+
+Silly lad that I was!
+
+Within twenty minutes of that idle dream the chain of circumstances had
+begun that was to bring every man aboard the Island Princess face to face
+with death. Like the small dark cloud that foreruns a typhoon, the first
+act in the wild drama that came near to costing me my own life was so
+slight, so insignificant relatively, that no man of us then dreamed of the
+hidden forces that brought it to pass.
+
+On the forecastle by the larboard rigging stood a big, broad-shouldered
+fellow, who nodded familiarly at the second mate, cast a bit of a leer at
+the captain as if to impress on the rest of us his own daring and
+independence, and gave me, when I caught his eye, a cold, noncommittal
+stare. His name, I shortly learned, was Kipping. Undeniably he was
+impudent; but he had, nevertheless, a mild face and a mild manner, and when
+I heard him talk, I discovered that he had a mild voice; I could find no
+place for him in the imaginary adventures that filled my mind--he was quite
+too mild a man.
+
+I perceived that he was soldiering at his work, and almost at the same
+moment I saw the mate come striding down on him.
+
+"You there," Mr. Thomas snapped out, "bear a hand! Do you think you're
+waiting for the cows to come home?"
+
+"No-o-o, sir," the mild man drawled, starting to walk across the deck.
+
+The slow reply, delivered with a mocking inflection, fanned to sudden
+laughter chuckles that the mate's words had caused.
+
+
+Mr. Thomas reddened and, stepping out, thrust his face close to the
+other's. "You try any of your slick tricks on me, my man," he said slowly
+and significantly, "you try any of your slick tricks on me, and so help me,
+I'll show you."
+
+"Ye-e-es, sir," the man replied with the same inflection, though not so
+pronounced this time.
+
+Suddenly the deck became very still. The listeners checked their laughter.
+Behind me I heard some one mutter, "Hear that, will you?" Glancing around,
+I saw that Captain Whidden had gone below and that Mr. Thomas was in
+command. I was confident that the mild seaman was mocking the mate, yet so
+subtle was his challenge, you could not be sure that he actually was
+defiant.
+
+Although Mr. Thomas obviously shared the opinion of the men, there was so
+little on which to base a charge of insubordination or affront that he
+momentarily hesitated.
+
+"What is your name?" he suddenly demanded.
+
+"Kipping, sir," the mild man replied.
+
+This time there was only the faintest suggestion of the derisive
+inflection. After all, it might have been but a mannerism. The man had such
+a mild face and such a mild manner!
+
+"Well, Kipping, you go about your work, and after this, let me warn you,
+keep busy and keep a civil tongue in your head. We'll have no slick tricks
+aboard this ship, and the sooner you men realize it, the easier it will be
+for all hands."
+
+Turning, the mate went back to the quarter-deck and resumed his station by
+the weather rail.
+
+While his back was toward us, however, and just as I myself, who had
+listened, all ears, to the exchange of words between them, was turning to
+the forecastle, I saw--or  thought I saw--on Kipping's almost averted face
+just such a leer as I had seen him cast at the captain, followed, I could
+have taken my oath, by a shameless wink. When he noticed me gazing at him,
+open-mouthed, he gave me such another cold stare as he had given me before
+and, muttering something under his breath, walked away.
+
+I looked aft to discover at whom he could have winked, but I saw only the
+second mate, who scowled at me angrily.
+
+"Now what," thought I, "can all this mean?" Then, being unable to make
+anything of it, I forgot it and devoted myself industriously to my own
+affairs until the hoarse call of "All hands on deck" brought the men who
+were below tumbling up, to be summoned aft and addressed by the captain.
+
+Apparently Captain Whidden was not aware that there was a soul on board
+ship except himself. With his eyes on the sea and his hands clasped behind
+him, he paced the deck, while we fidgeted and twisted and grew more and
+more impatient. At last, with a sort of a start, as if he had just seen
+that we were waiting, he stopped and surveyed us closely. He was a fine
+figure of a man and he affected the fashions of a somewhat earlier day.
+A beaver with sweeping brim surmounted his strong, smooth-shaven face, and
+a white stock, deftly folded, swathed his throat to his resolute chin. Trim
+waistcoat, ample coat, and calmly folded arms completed his picture as he
+stood there, grave yet not severe, waiting to address us.
+
+What he said to us in his slow, even voice was the usual speech of a
+captain in those times; and except for a finer dignity than common, he did
+not deviate from the well-worn customary phrases until he had outlined the
+voyage that lay before us and had summed up the advantages of prompt,
+willing obedience and the penalties of any other course. His tone then
+suddenly changed. "If any man here thinks that he can give me slovenly work
+or back talk and arguing," he said, "it'll be better for that man if he
+jumps overboard and swims for shore." I was certain--and I still am--that
+he glanced sharply at Kipping, who stood with a faint, nervous smile,
+looking at no one in particular. "Well, Mr. Thomas," he said at last,
+"we'll divide the watches. Choose your first man."
+
+When we went forward, I found myself, as the green hand of the voyage, one
+of six men in the starboard watch. I liked the arrangement little enough,
+for the second mate commanded us and Kipping was the first man he had
+chosen; but it was all in the day's work, so I went below to get my jacket
+before eight bells should strike.
+
+The voices in the forecastle suddenly stopped when my feet sounded on the
+steps; but as soon as the men saw that it was only the boy, they resumed
+their discussion without restraint.
+
+"I tell you," some one proclaimed from the darkest corner, "the second
+mate, he had it all planned to get the chief mate's berth this voyage, and
+the captain, he put him out no end because he wouldn't let him have it.
+Yes, sir. And he bears a grudge against the mate, he does, him and that sly
+friend of his, Kipping. Perhaps you didn't see Kipping wink at the second
+mate after he was called down. I did, and I says to myself then, says I,
+'There's going to be troublous times ere this voyage is over.' Yes, sir."
+
+"Right you are, Davie!" a higher, thinner voice proclaimed, "right you are.
+I was having my future told, I was, and the lady--"
+
+A roar of laughter drowned the words of the luckless second speaker, and
+some one yelled vociferously, "Neddie the fortune-teller! Don't tell me
+he's shipped with us again!"
+
+"But I tell you," Neddie persisted shrilly, "I tell you they hit it right,
+they do, often. And the lady, she says, 'Neddie Benson, don't you go
+reckless on this next voyage. There's trouble in store,' she says.
+'There'll be a dark man and a light man, and a terrible danger.' And I paid
+the lady two dollars and I--"
+
+Again laughter thundered in the forecastle.
+
+"All the same," the deep-voiced Davie growled, "that sly, slippery--"
+
+"Hist!" A man raised his hand against the light that came faintly from on
+deck.
+
+Then a mild voice asked, "What are you men quidding about anyway? One of
+you's sitting on my chest."
+
+"Listen to them talk," some one close beside me whispered. "You'd think
+this voyage was all of life, the way they run on about it. Now it don't
+mean so much to me. My name's Bill Hayden, and I've got a little wee girl,
+I have, over to Newburyport, that will be looking for her dad to come home.
+Two feet long she is, and cute as they make them."
+
+Aware that the speaker was watching me closely, I perfunctorily nodded. At
+that he edged nearer. "Now I'm glad we're in the same watch," he said. "So
+many men just cut a fellow off with a curse."
+
+I observed him more sharply, and saw that he was a stupid-looking but
+rather kindly soul whose hair was just turning gray.
+
+"Now I wish you could see that little girl of mine," he continued. "Cute?
+there ain't no word to tell you how cute she is. All a-laughing and
+gurgling and as good as gold. Why, she ain't but a little old, and yet she
+can stand right up on her two little legs as cute as you please."
+
+I listened with mild interest as he rambled on. He seemed such a friendly,
+homely soul that I could but regard him more kindly than I did some of our
+keener-witted fellow seamen.
+
+Now we heard faintly the bell as it struck, _clang-clang, clang-clang,
+clang-clang_. Feet scuffled overhead, and some one called down the hatch,
+"Eight bells, starbow-lines ahoy!"
+
+Davie's deep voice replied sonorously, "Ay-ay!" And one after another we
+climbed out on deck, where the wind from the sea blew cool on our faces.
+
+I had mounted the first rung of the ladder, and was regularly signed as a
+member of the crew of the Island Princess, bound for Canton with a cargo of
+woolen goods and ginseng. There was much that puzzled me aboard-ship--the
+discontent of the second mate, the perversity of the man Kipping (others
+besides myself had seen that wink), and a certain undercurrent of
+pessimism. But although I was separated a long, long way from my old
+friends in the cabin, I felt that in Bill Hayden I had found a friend of a
+sort; then, as I began my first real watch on deck at sea, I fell to
+thinking of my sister and Roger Hamlin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MAN OUTSIDE THE GALLEY
+
+
+Strange events happened in our first month at sea--events so subtle as
+perhaps to seem an unimportant part of this narrative of a strange voyage,
+yet really as necessary to the foundation of the story as the single bricks
+and the single dabs of mortar at the base of a tall chimney are necessary
+to the completed structure. I later had cause to remember each trivial
+incident as if it had been written in letters of fire.
+
+In the first dog watch one afternoon, when we were a few days out of port,
+I was sitting with my back against the forward deck-house, practising
+splices and knots with a bit of rope that I had saved for the purpose. I
+was only a couple of feet from the corner, so of course I heard what was
+going on just out of sight.
+
+The voices were low but distinct.
+
+"Now leave me alone!" It was Bill Hayden who spoke. "I ain't never troubled
+you."
+
+"Ah, so you ain't troubled me, have you, you whimpering old dog?"
+
+"No, I ain't troubled you."
+
+"Oh, no! You was so glad to let me take your nice dry boots, you was, when
+mine was filled with water."
+
+The slow, mild, ostensibly patient voice could be none other than
+Kipping's.
+
+"I had to wear 'em myself."
+
+"Oh, had to wear 'em yourself, did you?"
+
+"Let go o' my arm!"
+
+"So?"
+
+"Let go, I tell you; let go or I'll--I swear I'll hammer you good."
+
+"Oh, you'll hammer me good, will you?"
+
+"Let go!"
+
+There was a sudden scuffle, then out from the corner of the deck-house
+danced Kipping with both hands pressed over his jaw.
+
+"You bloody scoundrel!" he snarled, meek no longer. "You wait--I'll get
+you. I'll--" Seeing me sitting there with my bit of rope, he stopped short;
+then, with a sneer, he walked away.
+
+Amazed at the sudden departure of his tormentor, Bill Hayden stuck his own
+head round the corner and in turn discovered me in my unintentional
+hiding-place.
+
+Bill, however, instead of departing in chagrin, joined me with a puzzled
+expression on his kind, stupid face.
+
+"I don't understand that Kipping," he said sadly. "I've tried to use him
+right. I've done everything I can to help him out and I'm sure I don't want
+to quarrel with him, yet for all he goes around as meek as a cat that's
+been in the cream, he's always pecking at me and pestering me, till just
+now I was fair drove to give him a smart larrup."
+
+Why, indeed, should Kipping or any one else molest good, dull old Bill
+Hayden?
+
+"I'm a family man, I am," Bill continued, "with a little girl at home. I
+ain't a-bothering no one. I'm sure all I want is to be left alone."
+
+For a time we sat in silence, watching the succession of blue waves through
+which the Island Princess cut her swift and almost silent passage. A man
+must have been a cowardly bully to annoy harmless old Bill. Yet even then,
+young though I was, I realized that sometimes there is no more dangerous
+man than a coward and a bully, "He's great friends with the second mate,"
+Bill remarked at last. "And the second mate has got no use at all for Mr.
+Thomas because he thought he was going to get Mr. Thomas's berth and
+didn't; and for the same reason he don't like the captain. Well, I'm glad
+he's only _second mate_. He ain't got his hands out of the tar-bucket yet,
+my boy."
+
+"How do you know he expected to get the mate's berth?" I asked.
+
+"It's common talk, my boy. The supercargo's the only man aft he's got any
+manner of use for, and cook says the steward says Mr. Hamlin ain't got no
+manner of use for him. There you are."
+
+"No," I thought,--though I discreetly said nothing,--"Roger Hamlin is not
+the man to be on friendly terms with a fellow of the second mate's
+calibre."
+
+And from that time on I watched Mr. Falk, the second mate, and the
+mild-voiced Kipping more closely than ever--so closely that one night I
+stumbled on a surprising discovery.
+
+Ours was the middle watch, and Mr. Falk as usual was on the quarter-deck.
+By moonlight I saw him leaning on the weather rail as haughtily as if he
+were the master. His slim, slightly stooped figure, silhouetted against the
+moonlit sea, was unmistakable. But the winds were inconstant and drifting
+clouds occasionally obscured the moon. Watching, I saw him distinctly;
+then, as the moonlight darkened, the after part of the ship became as a
+single shadow against a sea almost as black. While I still watched, there
+came through a small fissure in the clouds a single moonbeam that swept
+from the sea across the quarter-deck and on over the sea again. By that
+momentary light I saw that Mr. Falk had left the weather rail.
+
+Certainly it was a trifling thing to consider twice, but you must remember,
+in the first place, that I was only a boy, with all a boy's curiosity about
+trifles, and in the second place that of the four men in the cabin no other
+derived such obvious satisfaction from the minor prerogatives of office as
+Mr. Falk. He fairly swelled like a frog in the sun as he basked in the
+prestige that he attributed to himself when, left in command, he occupied
+the captain's place at the weather rail.
+
+Immediately I decided that under the cover of darkness I would see what had
+become of him. So I ran lightly along in the shelter of the lee bulwark,
+dodging past the galley, the scuttle-butt, and the cabin in turn. At the
+quarter-deck I hesitated, knowing well that a sound thrashing was the least
+I could expect if Mr. Falk discovered me trespassing on his own territory,
+yet lured by a curiosity that was the stronger for the vague rumors on
+which it had fed.
+
+On hands and knees I stopped by the farther corner of the cabin. Clouds
+still hid the moon and low voices came to my ears. Very cautiously I peeked
+from my hiding-place, and saw that Mr. Falk and the helmsman had put their
+heads together and were talking earnestly.
+
+While they talked, the helmsman suddenly laughed and prodded Mr. Falk in
+the ribs with his thumb. Like a flash it came over me that it was Kipping's
+trick at the wheel. Here was absolute proof that, when the second mate and
+the mild man thought no one was spying upon them, they were on uncommonly
+friendly terms. Yet I did not dream that I had stumbled on anything graver
+than to confirm one of those idle rumors that set tongues wagging in the
+forecastle, but that really are too trifling to be worth a second thought.
+
+When the crew of a ship is cut off from all communication with the world at
+large, it is bound, for want of greater interests, to find in the
+monotonous daily round something about which to weave a pretty tale.
+
+At that moment, to my consternation, the bell struck four times. As the two
+dark figures separated, I started back out of sight. Kipping's trick at the
+wheel was over, and his relief would come immediately along the very route
+that I had chosen; unless I got away at once I should in all probability be
+discovered on the quarterdeck and trounced within an inch of my life. Then
+suddenly, as if to punish my temerity, the cloud passed and the moonlight
+streamed down on deck.
+
+Darting lightly back to the companion-ladder, I slipped down it and was on
+the point of escaping forward when I heard slow steps. In terror lest the
+relief spy me and reveal my presence by some exclamation that Kipping or
+the second mate would overhear, I threw myself down flat on the deck just
+forward of the scuttle-butt, where the moon cast a shadow; and with the
+fervent hope that I should appear to be only a heap of old sail, I lay
+without moving a muscle.
+
+The steps came slowly nearer. They had passed, I thought, when a pause set
+my heart to jumping madly. Then came a low, cautious whisper:--
+
+"You boy, what you doin' dah?"
+
+It was not the relief after all. It was the good old villainous-looking
+black cook, with a cup of coffee for Mr. Falk.
+
+"Put yo' head down dah," he whispered, "put yo' head down, boy."
+
+With a quick motion of his hand he jerked some canvas from the butt so that
+it concealed me, and went on, followed by the quick steps of the real
+relief.
+
+Now I heard voices, but the only words I could distinguish were in the
+cook's deep drawl.
+
+"Yass, sah, yass, sah. Ah brought yo' coffee, sah, Yass, sah, Ah'll wait
+fo' yo' cup, sah."
+
+Next came Kipping's step--a mild step, if there is such a thing; even in
+his bullying the man was mild. Then came the slow, heavy tread of the
+returning African.
+
+Flicking the canvas off me, he muttered, "All's cleah fo' you to git away,
+boy. How you done come to git in dis yeh scrape sho' am excruciatin'. You
+just go 'long with you while dey's a chanst."
+
+So, carrying with me the very unimportant discovery that I had made, I ran
+cautiously forward, away from the place where I had no business to be.
+
+When, in the morning, just before eight bells, I was sent to the galley
+with the empty kids, I found the worthy cook in a solemn mood.
+
+"You boy," he said, fixing on me a stare, which his deeply graven frown
+rendered the more severe, "you boy, what you think you gwine do, prowlin'
+round all hours? Hey? You tell dis nigger dat. Heah Ah's been and put you
+onto all de ropes and give you more infohmative disco'se about ships and
+how to behave on 'em dan eveh Ah give a green hand befo' in all de years Ah
+been gwine to sea, and heah you's so tarnation foolish as go prowlin' round
+de quarter-deck whar you's like to git skun alive if Mistah Falk ketches
+you."
+
+I don't remember what I replied, but I am sure it was flippant; to the day
+of my death I shall never forget the stinging, good-natured cuff with which
+the cook knocked my head against the wall. "Sho' now," he growled, "go
+'long!"
+
+I was not yet ready to go. "Tell me, doctor," I said, "does the second mate
+get on well with the others in the cabin?"
+
+The title mollified him somewhat, but he still felt that he must uphold the
+dignity of his office. "Sho' now, what kind of a question is dat fo' a
+ship's boy to be askin' de cook?" He glanced at me suspiciously, then
+challenged me directly, "Who put dose idea' in yo' head?"
+
+By the tone of the second question, which was quite too straightforward to
+be confused with the bantering that we usually exchanged, I knew that he
+was willing, if diplomatically coaxed, to talk frankly. I then said
+cautiously, "Every one thinks so, but you're the only man forward that's
+likely to know."
+
+"Now ain't dat jest like de assumptivity of dem dah men in de forecastle.
+How'd Ah know dat kind of contraptiveness, tell me?"
+
+Looking closely at me he began to rattle his pans at a great rate while I
+waited in silence. He was not accomplishing much; indeed, he really was
+throwing things into a state of general disorder. But I observed that he
+was working methodically round the galley toward where I stood, until at
+last he bumped into me and started as if he hadn't known that I was there
+at all.
+
+"You boy," he cried, "you still heah?" He scowled at me with a particularly
+savage intensity, then suddenly leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder.
+"You's right, boy," he whispered. "He ain't got no manner of use foh dem
+other gen'lems, and what's mo', dey ain't got no manner of use foh him.
+Ah's telling you, boy, it's darn lucky, you bet, dat Mistah Falk he eats at
+second table. Yass, sah. Hark! dah's de bell--eight bells! Yo' watch on
+deck, hey?" After a short pause, he whispered, "Boy, you come sneakin'
+round to-morrow night when dat yeh stew'd done gone to bed, an' Ah'll jest
+gadder you up a piece of pie f'om Cap'n's table--yass, sah! Eight bells is
+struck. Go 'long, you." And shoving me out of his little kingdom, the
+villainous-looking darky sent after me a savage scowl, which I translated
+rightly as a token of his high regard and sincere friendship.
+
+In my delight at the promised treat, and in my haste to join the watch, I
+gave too little heed to where I was going, and shot like a bullet squarely
+against a man who had been standing just abaft the galley window. He
+collapsed with a grunt. My shoulder had knocked the wind completely out of
+him.
+
+"Ugh!--" he gasped--"ugh! You son of perdition--ugh! Why in thunder don't
+you look where you're running--ugh!--I'll break your rascally young
+neck--ugh--when I get my wind."
+
+It was Kipping, and for the second time he had lost his mildness.
+
+As he clutched at me fiercely, I dodged and fled. Later, when I was hauling
+at his side, he seemed to have forgotten the accident; but I knew well
+enough that he had not. He was not the kind that forgets accidents. His
+silence troubled me. How much, I wondered, had he heard of what was going
+on in the galley?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A PIECE OF PIE
+
+
+At two bells there sounded the sonorous call, "Sail ho!"
+
+"Where away?" cried Mr. Falk.
+
+"One point off the larboard bow."
+
+In all the days since we had lost sight of land, we had seen but one other
+sail, which had appeared only to disappear again beyond the horizon. It
+seemed probable, however, that we should speak this second vessel, a brig
+whose course crossed our own. Captain Whidden came on deck and assumed
+command, and the men below, getting wind of the excitement, trooped up and
+lined the bulwarks forward. Our interest, which was already considerable,
+became even keener when the stranger hove out a signal of distress. We took
+in all studding-sails and topgallantsails fore and aft, and lay by for her
+about an hour after we first had sighted her.
+
+Over the water, when we were within hailing distance, came the cry: "Ship
+ahoy!"
+
+Captain Whidden held the speaking trumpet. "Hullo!"
+
+"What ship is that, pray?"
+
+"The ship Island Princess, from Salem, bound to Canton. Where are you
+from?"
+
+"The brig Adventure, bound from the Straits to Boston. Our foretopmast was
+carried away four hours ago. Beware of--"
+
+Losing the next words, the Captain called, "I didn't hear that last."
+
+"Beware,"--came again the warning cry, booming deeply over the sea while
+one and all we strained to hear it--"beware of any Arab ship. Arabs have
+captured the English ship Alert and have murdered her captain and fifteen
+men."
+
+Squaring her head-yards, the brig dropped her mainsail, braced her cross
+jack-yard sharp aback, put her helm a-weather and got sternway, while her
+after sails and helm kept her to the wind. So she fell off from us and the
+two vessels passed, perhaps never to meet again.
+
+Both forward and aft, we aboard the Island Princess were sober men. Kipping
+and the second mate were talking quietly together, I saw (I saw, too, that
+Captain Whidden and some of the others were watching them sharply) Mr.
+Thomas and Roger Hamlin were leaning side by side upon the rail, and
+forward the men were gathering in groups. It was indeed an ominous message
+that the brig had given us. But supper broke the tension, and afterwards a
+more cheerful atmosphere prevailed.
+
+As I was sweeping down the deck next day, Roger, to my great surprise,--for
+by now I was accustomed to his amused silence,--came and spoke to me with
+something of the old, humorous freedom that was so characteristic of him.
+
+"Well, Bennie," said he, "we're quite a man now, are we not?"
+
+"We are," I replied shortly. Although I would not for a great deal have
+given him the satisfaction of knowing it, I had been much vexed, secretly,
+by his rigidly ignoring me.
+
+"Bennie," he said in a low voice, "is there trouble brewing in the
+forecastle?"
+
+I was startled. "Why, no. I've seen no sign of trouble."
+
+"No one has talked to you, then?"
+
+"Not in such a way as you imply."
+
+"Hm! Keep your eyes and ears open, anyway, and if you hear anything that
+sounds like trouble, let me know--quietly, mind you, even secretly."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"We are carrying a valuable cargo, and we have very particular orders. All
+must be thus and so,--exactly thus and so,--and it means more to the
+owners, Bennie, than I think you realize. Now you go on with your work. But
+remember--eyes and ears open."
+
+That night, as I watched the restless sea and the silent stars, my
+imagination was stirred as never before. I felt the mystery and wonder of
+great distances and far places. We were so utterly alone! Except for the
+passing hail of some stranger, we had cut ourselves off for months from all
+communication with the larger world. Whatever happened aboard ship, in
+whatever straits we found ourselves, we must depend solely upon our own
+resources; and already it appeared that some of our shipmates were scheming
+and intriguing against one another. Thus I meditated, until the boyish and
+more natural, perhaps more wholesome, thought of the cook's promise came to
+me.
+
+Pie! My remembrance of pie was almost as intangible as a pleasant dream
+might be some two days later. With care to escape observation, I made my
+way to the galley and knocked cautiously.
+
+"Who's dah?" asked softly the old cook, who had barricaded himself for the
+night according to his custom, and was smoking a villainously rank pipe.
+
+"It's Ben Lathrop," I whispered.
+
+"What you want heah?" the cook demanded.
+
+"The pie you promised me," I answered.
+
+"Humph! Ain't you fo'got dat pie yet? You got de most miraculous memorizer
+eveh Ah heared of. You wait."
+
+I heard him fumbling inside the galley; then he opened the door and stepped
+out on deck as if he had just decided to take a breath of fresh air. Upon
+seeing me, he pretended to start with great surprise, and exclaimed rather
+more loudly than before:--
+
+"What you doin' heah, boy, at dis yeh hour o' night?"
+
+But all this was only crafty by-play. Having made sure, so he thought,
+that no one was in sight, he grabbed me by the collar and yanked me into
+the galley, at the same time shutting the door so that I almost stifled in
+the rank smoke with which he had filled the place.
+
+Scowling fiercely, he reached into a little cupboard and drew out half an
+apple pie that to my eager eyes seemed as big as a half moon on a clear
+night.
+
+
+"Dah," he said. "Eat it up. Mistah Falk, he tell stew'd he want pie and he
+gotta have pie, and stew'd he come and he say, 'Frank,' says he, 'dat
+Mistah Falk, his langwidge is like he is in liquo'. He _gotta_ have pie.'
+'All right,' Ah say, 'if he gotta have pie, he gotta wait twill Ah make
+pie. Cap'n, he et hearty o' pie lately.' Stew'd he say, 'Cap'n ain't had
+but one piece and Mistah Thomas, he ain't had but one piece, and Mistah
+Hamlin, he ain't had any. Dah's gotta be pie. You done et dat pie yo'se'f,'
+says he. 'Oh, no,' says Ah. 'Ah never et no pie. You fo'get 'bout dat pie
+you give Cap'n foh breakfas'.' Den stew'd he done crawl out. He don' know
+Ah make two pies yestidday. Dat's how come Ah have pie foh de boy. Boys dey
+need pie to make 'em grow. It's won'erful foh de indignation, pie is."
+
+I was appalled by the hue and cry that my half-circle of pastry had
+occasioned, and more than a little fearful of the consequences if the truth
+ever should transpire; but the pie in hand was compensation for many such
+intangible difficulties in the future, and I was making great inroads on a
+wedge of it, when I thought I heard a sound outside the window, which the
+cook had masked with a piece of paper.
+
+I stopped to listen and saw that Frank had heard it too. It was a scratchy
+sound as if some one were trying to unship the glass.
+
+"Massy sake!" my host gasped, taking his vile pipe out of his mouth.
+
+Although it was quite impossible for pallor to make any visible impression
+on his surpassing blackness, he obviously was much disturbed.
+
+"Gobble dat pie, boy," he gasped, "gobble up ev'y crumb an' splinter."
+
+Now, as the scratchy noise sounded at the door, the cook laid his pipe on a
+shelf and glanced up at a big carving-knife that hung from a rack above his
+head.
+
+"Who's dah?" he demanded cautiously.
+
+"Lemme in," said a mild, low voice, "I want some o' that pie."
+
+"Massy sake!" the cook gasped in disgust, "ef it ain't dat no 'count
+Kipping."
+
+"Lemme in," persisted the mild, plaintive voice. "Lemme in."
+
+"Aw, go 'long! Dah ain't no pie in heah," the cook retorted. "You's
+dreamin', dat's what you is. You needs a good dose of medicine, dat's what
+you needs."
+
+"I'm dreaming, am I?" the mild voice repeated. "Oh, yes, I'm dreaming I am,
+ain't I? I didn't sneak around the galley yesterday morning and hear you
+tell that cocky little fool to come and get a piece of pie tonight. Oh, no!
+I didn't see him come prowling around when he thought no one was looking.
+Oh, no! I didn't see you come out of the galley like you didn't know there
+was anybody on deck, and walk right under the rigging where I was waiting
+for just such tricks. Oh, no! I was dreaming, I was. Oh, yes."
+
+
+"Dat Kipping," the cook whispered, "he's hand and foot with Mistah Falk."
+
+"Lemme in, you woolly-headed son of perdition, or I swear I'll take the
+kinky scalp right off your round old head."
+
+"He's gettin' violenter," the cook whispered, eyeing me questioningly.
+
+Saying nothing, I swallowed the last bit of pie. I had made the most of my
+opportunity.
+
+Kipping now shook the door and swore angrily. Finally he kicked it with the
+full weight of his heel.
+
+It rattled on its hinges and a long crack appeared in the lower panel.
+
+"He's sho' coming in," the African said slowly and reflectively. "He's sho'
+coming in and when he don't get no pie, he's gwine tell Mistah Falk, and
+you and me's gwine have trouble." Putting his scowling face close to my
+ear, the cook whispered, "Ah's gwine scare him good."
+
+Amazed by the dramatic turn that events were taking, I drew back into a
+corner.
+
+From the rack above his head the cook took down the carving-knife. Dropping
+on hands and knees and creeping across the floor, he held the weapon
+between his even white teeth, sat up on his haunches, and noiselessly
+drew the bolt that locked the door. Then with a deft motion of an
+extraordinarily long arm he put out the lantern behind him and threw the
+galley into darkness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+KIPPING
+
+
+I thought that Kipping must have abandoned his quest. In the darkness of
+the galley the silence seemed hours long. The coals in the stove glowed
+redly, and the almost imperceptible light of the starry sky came in here
+and there around the door. Otherwise not a thing was visible in the
+absolute blackness that shrouded my strange host, who seemed for the moment
+to have reverted to the savage craft of his Slave Coast ancestors. Surely
+Kipping must have gone away, I thought. He was so mild a man, one could
+expect nothing else. Then somewhere I heard the faint sigh of indrawn
+breath.
+
+"You blasted nigger, open that door," said the mild, sad voice. "If you
+don't, I'm going to kick it in on top of you and cut your heart out right
+where you stand."
+
+The silence, heavy and pregnant, was broken by the shuffling of feet.
+Evidently Kipping drew off to kick the door a second time. His boot struck
+it a terrific blow, but the door, instead of breaking, flew open and
+crashed against the pans behind it.
+
+Then the cook, who so carefully had prepared the simple trap, swinging the
+carving-knife like a cutlass, sprang with a fierce, guttural grunt full in
+Kipping's face. Concealed in the dark galley, I saw it all silhouetted
+against the starlit deck. With the quickness of a weasel, Kipping evaded
+the black's clutching left hand and threw himself down and forward. Had the
+cook really intended to kill Kipping, the weapon scarcely could have failed
+to cut flesh in its terrific swing, but he gave it an upward turn that
+carried it safely above Kipping's head. When Kipping, however, dived under
+Frank's feet, Frank, who had expected him to turn and run, tripped and
+fell, dropping the carving-knife, and instantly black man and white
+wriggled toward the weapon.
+
+It would have been funny if it hadn't been so dramatic. The two men
+sprawled on their bellies like snakes, neither of them daring to take time
+to stand, each, in the snap of a finger, striving with every tendon and
+muscle to reach something that lay just beyond his finger-tips. I found
+myself actually laughing--they looked so like two fish just out of water.
+
+But the fight suddenly had become bitter earnest, Kipping unquestionably
+feared for his life, and the cook knew well that the weapon for which they
+fought would be turned against him if his antagonist once got possession of
+it.
+
+As Kipping closed his fingers on the handle, the cook grabbed the blade.
+Then the mate appeared out of the dark.
+
+
+"Here, what's this?" he demanded, looming on the scene of the struggle.
+
+I saw starlight flash on the knife as it flew over the bulwark, then I
+heard it splash. Kipping got away by a quick twist and vanished. The cook
+remained alone to face the mate, for you can be very sure that I had every
+discreet intention not to reveal my presence in the dark galley.
+
+"Yass, sah," said the cook, "yass, sah. Please to 'scuse me, sah, but Ah
+didn't go foh no premeditation of disturbance. It is quite unintelligible,
+sah, but one of de men, sah, he come round, sah, and says Ah gotta give him
+a pie, sah, and of co'se Ah can't do nothin' like dat, sah. Pies is foh de
+officers and gen'lems, sah, and of co'se Ah don't give pie to de men, sah,
+not even in dey vittles, sah, even if dey was pie, which dey wa'n't, sah,
+fob dis we'y day Mistah Falk he wants pie and stew'd he come, and me and
+he, sah, we sho' ransack dis galley, sah, and try like we can, not even two
+of us togetheh, sah, can sca' up a piece of pie foh Mistah Falk, sah, and
+he--"
+
+Unwilling to listen longer, the mate turned with a grunt of disgust and
+walked away.
+
+After he had gone, the cook stood for a time by the galley, looking
+pensively at the stars. Long-armed, broad-shouldered, bullet-headed, he
+seemed a typical savage. Yet in spite of his thick lips and protruding
+chin, his face had a certain thoughtful quality, and not even that deeply
+graven scowl could hide the dog-like faithfulness of his dark eyes.
+
+After all, I wondered, was he not like a faithful dog: loyal to the last
+breath, equally ready to succor his friend or to fight for him?
+
+"Boy," he said, when he came in, "Ah done fool 'em. Dey ain' gwine believe
+no gammon dat yeh Kipping tells 'em--leastwise, no one ain't onless it's
+Mistah Falk. Now you go 'long with you and don't you come neah me foh a
+week without you act like Ah ain't got no use foh you. And boy," he
+whispered, "you jest look out and keep clear of dat Kipping. Foh all he
+talk' like he got a mouth full of butter, he's an uncommon fighter, he is,
+yass sah, an uncommon fighter."
+
+He paused for a moment, then added in such a way that I remembered it long
+afterward, "Ah sho' would like to know whar Ah done see dat Kipping befo'."
+
+I reached the forecastle unobserved, and as I started to climb into my
+bunk, I felt very well satisfied with myself indeed. Not even Kipping had
+seen me come. But a disagreeable surprise awaited me; my hand encountered a
+man lying wrapped in my blankets.
+
+It was Kipping!
+
+He rolled out with a sly smile, looked at me in silence a long time, and
+then pretended to shake with silent laughter.
+
+"Well," I whispered, "what's the matter with you?"
+
+"There wasn't any pie," he sighed--so mildly. "How sad that there wasn't
+any pie."
+
+He then climbed into his own bunk and almost immediately, I judged, went to
+sleep.
+
+If he desired to make me exceedingly uncomfortable, he had accomplished his
+purpose. For days I puzzled over his queer behavior. I wondered how much he
+knew, how much he had told Mr. Falk; and I recalled, sometimes, the cook's
+remark, "Ah sho' would like to know whar Ah done see dat Kipping befo'."
+
+Of one thing I was sure: both Kipping and Mr. Falk heartily disliked me.
+Kipping took every occasion to annoy me in petty ways, and sometimes I
+discovered Mr. Falk watching me sharply and ill-naturedly. But he always
+looked away quickly when he knew that I saw him.
+
+We still lacked several days of having been at sea a month when we sighted
+Madeira, bearing west southwest about ten leagues distant. Taking a fresh
+departure the next day from latitude 32° 22' North, and longitude 16° 36'
+West of London, we laid our course south southwest, and swung far enough
+away from the outshouldering curve of the Rio de Oro coast to pass clear of
+the Canary Islands.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+"Do you know," said Bill Hayden one day, some five weeks later, when we
+were aloft side by side, "they don't like you any better than they do me."
+
+It was true; both Kipping and Mr. Falk showed it constantly.
+
+"And there's others that don't like us, too," Bill added. "I told 'em,
+though, that if they got funny with me or you, I'd show 'em what was what."
+
+"Who are they?" I asked, suddenly remembering Roger Hamlin's warning.
+
+"Davie Paine is one."
+
+"But I thought he didn't like Kipping or Mr. Falk!"
+
+"He didn't for a while; but there was something happened that turned his
+mind about them."
+
+I worked away with the tar-bucket and reflected on this unexpected change
+in the attitude of the deep-voiced seaman who, on our first day aboard
+ship, had seen Kipping wink at the second mate. It was all so trivial that
+I was ready to laugh at myself for thinking of it twice, and yet stupid
+old Bill Hayden had noticed it. A new suspicion startled me. "Bill, did
+any one say anything to you about any plan or scheme that Kipping is
+concerned in?" I asked.
+
+"Why, yes. Didn't they speak to you about it?"
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Why, about a voyage that all the men was to have a venture in. I thought
+they talked to every one. I didn't want anything to do with it if Kipping
+was to have a finger in the pie. I told 'em 'No!' and they swore at me
+something awful, and said that if ever I blabbed I'd never see my little
+wee girl at Newburyport again. So I never said nothing." He looked at me
+with a frightened expression. "It's funny they never said nothing to you.
+Don't you tell 'em I talked. If they thought I'd split, they'd knock me in
+the head, that's what they' d do."
+
+"Who's in it besides Kipping and Davie Paine?"
+
+"The two men from Boston and Chips and the steward. Them's all I know, but
+there may be others. The men have been talking about it quiet like for a
+good while now."
+
+As Mr. Falk came forward on some errand or other, we stopped talking and
+worked harder than ever at tarring down the rigging.
+
+Presently Bill repeated without turning his head, "Don't you tell 'em I
+said anything, will you, Bennie? Don't you tell 'em."
+
+And I replied, "No."
+
+We then had passed the Canaries and the Cape Verdes, and had crossed the
+Line; from the most western curve of Africa we had weathered the narrows of
+the Atlantic almost to Pernambuco, and thence, driven by fair winds, we had
+swept east again in a long arc, past Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha,
+and on south of the Cape of Good Hope.
+
+The routine of a sailor's life is full of hard work and petty detail. Week
+follows week, each like every other. The men complain about their duties
+and their food and the officers grow irritable. There are few stories worth
+telling in the drudgery of life at sea, but now and then in a long, long
+time fate and coincidence conspire to unite in a single voyage, such as
+that which I am chronicling, enough plots and crimes and untoward incidents
+to season a dozen ordinary lifetimes spent before the mast.
+
+I could not, of course, even begin as yet to comprehend the magnitude that
+the tiny whirlpool of discontented and lawless schemers would attain. But
+boy though I was, in those first months of the voyage I had learned
+enough about the different members of the crew to realize that serious
+consequences might grow from such a clique.
+
+Kipping, whom I had thought at first a mild, harmless man, had proved
+himself a vengeful bully, cowardly in a sense, yet apparently courageous
+enough so far as physical combat was concerned. Also, he had disclosed an
+unexpected subtlety, a cat-like craft in eavesdropping and underhanded
+contrivances. The steward I believed a mercenary soul, tricky so far as his
+own comfort and gain were concerned, who, according to common report, had
+ingratiated himself with the second mate by sympathizing with him on every
+occasion because he had not been given the chief mate's berth. The two men
+from Boston I cared even less for; they were slipshod workmen and
+ill-tempered, and their bearing convinced me that, from the point of view
+of our officers and of the owners of the ship, they were a most undesirable
+addition to such a coterie as Kipping seemed to be forming. Davie Paine and
+the carpenter prided themselves on being always affable, and each, although
+slow to make up his mind, would throw himself heart and body into whatever
+course of action he finally decided on. But significant above all else was
+Kipping's familiarity with Mr. Falk.
+
+The question now was, how to communicate my suspicions secretly to Roger
+Hamlin. After thinking the matter over in all its details, I wrote a few
+letters on a piece of white paper, and found opportunity to take counsel
+with my friend the cook, when I, as the youngest in the crew, was left in
+the galley to bring the kids forward to the men in the forecastle.
+
+"Doctor," I said, "if I wanted to get a note to Mr. Hamlin without
+anybody's knowing,--particularly the steward or Mr. Falk,--how should I go
+about it?"
+
+The perpetually frowning black heaped salt beef on the kids. "Dah's enough
+grub foh a hun'erd o'nary men. Dey's enough meat dah to feed a whole
+regiment of Sigambeezel cavalry--yass, sah, ho'ses and all. And yet Ah'll
+bet you foh dollahs right out of mah pay, doze pesky cable-scrapers fo'ward
+'ll eat all dat meat and cuss me in good shape 'cause it ain't mo', and
+den, mah golly, dey'll sot up all night, Ah'll bet you, yass, sah,
+a-kicking dey heads off 'cause dey ain't fed f'om de cabin table. Boy, if
+you was to set beefsteak and bake' 'taters and ham and eggs down befo' dem
+fool men ev'y mo'ning foh breakfas', dey'd come heah hollerin' and cussin'
+and tellin' me dey wah n't gwine have dey innards spiled on all dat yeh
+truck jest 'cause dem aft can't eat it."
+
+Turning his ferocious scowl full upon me, the savage-looking darky handed
+me the kids. "Dah! you take doze straight along fo'ward." Then, dropping
+his voice to a whisper, he said, "Gimme yo' note."
+
+Knowing now that the cook approached every important matter by an
+extraordinarily indirect route, I had expected some such conclusion, and I
+held the note ready.
+
+"Go long," he said, when I had slipped it into his huge black hand. "Ah'll
+do it right."
+
+So I departed with all confidence that my message would go secretly and
+safely to its destination. Even if it should fall into other hands than
+those for which it was intended, I felt that I had not committed myself
+dangerously. I had written only one word: "News."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+IN WHICH WE ENCOUNTER AN ARAB SHIP
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE COUNCIL IN THE CABIN
+
+
+Sometimes in the night I dream of the forecastle of the Island Princess,
+and see the crew sitting on chests and bunks, as vividly as if only
+yesterday I had come through the hatchway and down the steps with a kid of
+"salt horse" for the mess, and had found them waiting, each with his pan
+and spoon and the great tin dipper of tea that he himself had brought from
+the galley. There was Chips, the carpenter, who had descended for the
+moment from the dignity of the steerage; calmly he helped himself to twice
+his share, ignoring the oaths of the others, and washed down his first
+mouthful with a great gulp of tea. Once upon a time Chips came down just
+too late to get any meat, and tried to kill the cook; but as the cook
+remarked to me afterwards, "Foh a drea'ful impulsive pusson, he wah n't
+ve'y handy with his fists." There was Bill Hayden, who always got last
+chance at the meat, and took whatever the doubtful generosity of his
+shipmates had left him--poor Bill, as happy in the thought of his little
+wee girl at Newburyport as if all the wealth of the khans of Tartary were
+waiting for him at the end of the voyage. There was the deep-voiced Davie,
+almost out of sight in the darkest corner, who chose his food carefully,
+pretending the while to be considerate of the others, and growled amiably
+about his hard lot. Also there was Kipping, mild and evasive, yet amply
+able to look out for his own interests, as I, who so often brought down the
+kids, well knew.
+
+When, that evening, Bill Hayden had scraped up the last poor slivers of
+meat, he sat down beside me on my chest.
+
+"If I didn't have my little wee girl at Newburyport," he said, "I might
+be as gloomy as Neddie Benson. Do you suppose if I went to see a
+fortune-teller I'd be as gloomy as Neddie is? I never used to be gloomy,
+even before I married, and I married late. I was older than Neddie is
+now when I married. Neddie ought to get a wife and stop going to see
+fortune-tellers, and then he wouldn't be so gloomy."
+
+Bill would run on indefinitely in his stupid, kindly way, for I was almost
+the only person aboard ship who listened to him at all, and, to tell the
+truth, even I seldom more than half listened. But already he had given me
+valuable information that day, and now something in the tone of his
+rambling words caught my attention.
+
+"Has Neddie Benson been talking about the fortuneteller again?" I asked.
+
+"He's had a lot to say about her. He says the lady said to him--"
+
+"But what started him off?"
+
+"He says things is bound to come to a bad end."
+
+"What things?"
+
+As I have said before, I had a normal boy's curiosity about all that was
+going on around us. Perhaps, I have come to think, I had more than the
+ordinary boy's sense for important information. Roger Hamlin's warning had
+put me on my guard, and I intended to learn all I could and to keep my
+mouth shut where certain people were concerned.
+
+"It's queer they don't say nothing to you about what's going on," Bill
+remarked.
+
+For my own part I understood very well why they should say nothing of any
+underhanded trickery to one who ashore was so intimately acquainted with
+Captain Whidden and Roger Hamlin. But I kept my thoughts to myself and
+persisted in my questions.
+
+"What is going on?"
+
+"Oh, I don't just make out what." Bill's stupidity was exasperating at
+times. "It's something about Mr. Falk. Kipping, he--"
+
+"Yes?" said that eternally mild voice. "Mr. Falk? And Kipping? What else
+please?"
+
+Both Bill and I were startled to find Kipping at our elbows. But before
+either of us could answer, some one called down the hatch:--
+
+"Lathrop is wanted aft."
+
+Relieved at escaping from an embarrassing situation, I jumped up so
+promptly that my knife fell with a clatter, and hastened on deck, calling
+"Ay, ay," to the man who had summoned me. I knew very well why I was wanted
+aft.
+
+Mr. Falk, who was on duty on the quarter-deck, completely ignored me as I
+passed him and went down the companionway.
+
+"At least," I thought, "he can't come below now."
+
+The steward, when I appeared, raised his eyebrows and almost dropped his
+tray; then he paused in the door, inconspicuously, as if to linger. But
+Captain Whidden glanced round and dismissed him by a sharp nod, and I found
+myself alone in the cabin with the captain, Mr. Thomas, and Roger Hamlin.
+
+"I understand there's news forward, Lathrop," said Captain Whidden.
+
+Roger looked at me with that humorous, exasperating twinkle of his eyes,--I
+thought of my sister and of how she had looked when she learned that he was
+to sail for Canton,--and Mr. Thomas folded his arms and leaned back in his
+chair.
+
+"Yes, sir," I replied, "although it seems pretty unimportant to be worth
+much as news."
+
+"Tell us about it."
+
+To all that I had gathered from Bill Hayden I added what I had learned by
+my own observations, and it seemed to interest them, although for my own
+part I doubted whether it was of much account.
+
+"Has any one approached you directly about these things?" Captain Whidden
+asked when I was through.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Have you heard any one say just what this little group is trying to
+accomplish, or just when it is going to act?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you, Lathrop, know anything about the cargo of the Island Princess? Or
+anything about the terms under which it is carried?"
+
+"Only in a general way, sir, that it is made up of ginseng and woolen goods
+shipped to Canton."
+
+Captain Whidden looked at me very sharply indeed. "You are positive that
+that is all you know?"
+
+"Yes, sir--except, in a general way, that the cargo is uncommonly
+important."
+
+The three men exchanged glances, and Roger Hamlin nodded as if to
+corroborate my reply.
+
+"Lathrop," Captain Whidden began again, "I want you to say nothing about
+this interview after you leave the cabin. It is more important that you
+hold your peace than you may ever realize--than, I trust, you ever _will_
+realize. I am going to ask you to give me your word of honor to that
+effect."
+
+It seemed to me then that I saw Captain Whidden in a new light. We of the
+younger generation had inclined to belittle him because he continued to
+follow the sea at an age when more successful men had established their
+counting-houses or had retired from active business altogether. But twice
+his mercantile adventures had proved unfortunate, and now, though nearly
+sixty years old and worth a very comfortable fortune, he refused to leave
+again for a less familiar occupation the profession by which he had amassed
+his competence. I noticed that his hair was gray on his temples, and that
+his weathered face revealed a certain stern sadness. I felt as if suddenly,
+in spite of my minor importance on board his ship, I had come closer to the
+straightforward gentleman, the true Joseph Whidden, than in all the years
+that I had known him, almost intimately, it had seemed at the time, in my
+father's house.
+
+"I promise, sir," I said.
+
+He took up a pencil and with the point tapped a piece of paper.
+
+"Tell me who of all the men forward absolutely are not influenced by this
+man Kipping."
+
+"The cook," I returned, "and Bill Hayden, and, I think, Neddie Benson.
+Probably there are a number of others, but only of those three am I
+absolutely sure."
+
+"That's what I want--the men you are absolutely sure of. Hm! The cook,
+useful but not particularly quick-witted. Hayden, a harmless, negative
+body. Benson, a gloomy soul if ever there was one. It might be better
+but--" He looked at Mr. Thomas and smiled. "That is all, Lathrop; you may
+go now. Just one moment more, though: be cautious, keep your eyes and ears
+open, and if anything else comes up, communicate with Mr. Hamlin or,--" he
+hesitated, but finally said it,--"or directly with me."
+
+As I went up on deck, I again passed Mr. Falk and again he pretended not to
+see me. But although he seemed to be intent on the rolling seas to
+windward, I was very confident that, when I had left the quarter-deck, he
+turned and looked after me as earnestly as if he hoped to read in my step
+and carriage everything that had occurred in the cabin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SAIL WITH A LOZENGE-SHAPED PATCH
+
+
+It was not long before we got another warning even more ominous than the
+one from the captain of the Adventure. On Friday, July 28, in latitude
+19° 50' South, longitude 101° 53' East,--the log of the voyage, kept beyond
+this point in Mr. Thomas's own hand, gives me the dates and figures to the
+very day for it still is preserved in the vaults of Hamlin, Lathrop &
+Company,--we sighted a bark to the south, and at the captain's orders wore
+ship to speak her. When she also came about, we served out pikes and
+muskets as a precaution against treachery, and Mr. Falk saw that our guns
+were shotted. But she proved to be in good faith, and in answer to our hail
+she declared herself the Adrienne of Liverpool, eight days from the
+Straits, homeward bound. Her master, it appeared, wished to compare notes
+on longitude, and a long, dull discussion followed; but in parting Captain
+Whidden asked if there was news of pirates or marauders.
+
+"Yes," was the reply. "Much news and bad news." And the master of the
+Adrienne thereupon launched into a tale of piracy and treachery such, as I
+never had heard before. Leaning over the taffrail, his elbows out-thrust
+and his big hands folded, he roared the story at us in a great booming
+voice that at times seemed to drown the words in its own volume. Now, as
+the waves and the wind snatched it away, it grew momentarily fainter and
+clearer; now it came bellowing back again, loud, hoarse, and indistinct.
+
+It was all about an Arab ship off Benkulen; Ladronesers and the havoc they
+had wrought among the American ships in the China Sea; a warning not to
+sail from Macao for Whampoa without a fleet of four or five sail; and
+again, about the depredations of the Malays. The grizzled old captain
+seemed to delight in repeating horrible yarns of the seas whence he came,
+whither we were going. He roared them after us until we had left him far
+astern; and at the last we heard him laughing long and hoarsely.
+
+"What dat yeh man think we all am? He think we all gwine believe dat yeh?
+Hgh!" the cook growled.
+
+But Neddie Benson dolefully shook his head.
+
+Parting, the Adrienne and the Island Princess continued, each on her
+course, the one back round the Cape of Good Hope and north again to
+Liverpool, the other on into strange oceans beset with a thousand dangers.
+
+We sailed now a sea of opalescent greens and purples that shimmered and
+changed with the changing lights. Strange shadows played across it, even
+when the sky was cloudless, and it rolled past the ship in great, regular
+swells, ruffled by favoring breezes and bright beneath the clear sun.
+
+At daylight on August 3 we saw land about nine miles away, bearing from
+east by south to north, a long line of rugged hills, which appeared to be
+piled one above another, and which our last lunar observations indicated
+were in longitude 107° 15' East; and we made out a single sail lying off
+the coast to the north.
+
+The sail caught and held our attention--not that, so far as we then could
+see, that particular sail was at all remarkable: any sail, at that time and
+in that place, would have interested us unusually. Mindful of the warnings
+we had received, we paused in our work to watch it. Kipping, with a sly
+glance aft, left the winch with which he was occupied and leaned on the
+rail. Here and there the crew conversed cautiously, and on the quarter-deck
+a lively discussion, I could see, was in progress.
+
+We were so intent on that distant spot of canvas which pricked the horizon,
+that a fierce squall, sweeping down upon us, almost took us aback.
+
+The cry, "All hands on deck!" brought the sleeping watch from the bunks
+below, and the carpenter, steward, and sailmaker from the steerage. The
+foresail ripped from its bolt ropes with a deafening crack, and tore to
+ribbons in the gale. As the ship lay into the wind, I could hear the
+captain's voice louder than the very storm, "Meet her!--Meet her!--Ease her
+off!" But the reply of the man at the wheel was lost in the rush of wind
+and rain.
+
+I had been well drilled long since in furling the royals, for on them the
+green hands were oftenest practised; and now, from his post on the
+forecastle, Mr. Thomas spied me as I slipped and fell half across the deck.
+I alone at that moment was not hard at work, and, in obedience to the
+captain's orders, during a lull that gave us a momentary respite, he sent
+me aloft.
+
+It was quite a different thing from furling a royal in a light breeze. When
+I had got to the topgallant masthead, the yard was well down by the lifts
+and steadied by the braces, but the clews were not hauled chock up to the
+blocks. Leaning out precariously, I won Mr. Thomas's attention with
+greatest difficulty, and shrieked to have it done. This he did. Then,
+casting the yard-arm gaskets off from the tye and laying them across
+between the tye and the mast, I stretched out on the weather yard-arm and,
+getting hold of the weather leech, brought it in to the slings taut along
+the yard. Mind you, all this time I, only a boy, was working in a gale of
+wind and driven rain, and was clinging to a yard that was sweeping from
+side to side in lurching, unsteady flight far above the deck and the angry
+sea. Hauling the sail through the clew, and letting it fall in the bunt, I
+drew the weather clew a little abaft the yard, and held it with my knee
+while I brought in the lee leech in, the same manner. Then, making up my
+bunt and putting into it the slack of the clews, the leech and footrope and
+the body of the sail, I hauled it well up on the yard, smoothed the skin,
+brought it down abaft, and made fast the bunt-gasket round the mast.
+Passing the weather and lee yard-arm gaskets round the yard in turn, and
+hauling them taut and making them fast, I left all snug and trim.
+
+From aft came faintly the clear command, "Full and by!" And promptly, for
+by this time the force of the squall was already spent, the answer of the
+man at the wheel, "Full and by, sir."
+
+In this first moment of leisure I instinctively turned, as did virtually
+every man aboard ship, to look for the sail that had been reported to the
+north of us. But although we looked long and anxiously, we saw no sail, no
+trace of any floating craft. It had disappeared during the squall, utterly
+and completely. Only the wild dark sea and the wild succession of mountain
+piled on mountain met our searching eyes.
+
+A sail there had been, beyond all question, where now there was none.
+Driven by the storm, it had vanished completely from our sight.
+
+As well as we could judge by our lunar observations, the land was between
+Paga River and Stony Point, and when we had sailed along some forty miles,
+the shore, as it should be according to our reckoning, was less
+mountainous.
+
+It was my first glimpse of the Sunda Islands, of which I had heard so much,
+and I well remember that I stood by the forward rigging watching the
+distant land from where it seemed on my right to rise from the sea, to
+where it seemed on my left to go down beyond the horizon into the sea
+again, and that I murmured to myself in a small, awed voice:--
+
+"This is Java!"
+
+The very name had magic in it. Already from those islands our Salem
+mariners had accumulated great wealth. Not yet are the old days forgotten,
+when Elias Hasket Derby's ships brought back fortunes from Batavia, and
+when Captain Carnes, by one voyage in Jonathan Peele's schooner Rajah to
+the northern coast of Sumatra for wild pepper, made a profit of seven
+hundred per cent of both the total cost of the schooner itself and the
+whole expense of the entire expedition. I who lived in the exhilarating
+atmosphere of those adventurous times was thrilled to the heart by my first
+sight of lands to which hundreds of Salem ships had sailed.
+
+It really was Java, and night was falling on its shores. Far to the
+northeast some tiny object pricked above the skyline, and a point of light
+gleamed clearly, low against the blue heavens in which the stars had just
+begun to shine.
+
+"A sail!" I cried.
+
+Before the words had left my lips a deep voice aloft sonorously
+proclaimed:--
+
+"Sa-a-ail ho!"
+
+"Where away?" Mr. Thomas cried.
+
+"Two points off the larboard bow, sir."
+
+The little knot of officers on the quarter-deck already were intent on the
+tiny spot of almost invisible canvas, and we forward were crowding one
+another for a better sight of it. Then in the gathering darkness it faded
+and was gone. Could it have been the same that we had seen before?
+
+There was much talk of the mysterious ship that night, and many strange
+theories were offered to account for it. Davie Paine, in his deep, rolling
+voice, sent shivers down our backs by his story of a ghost-ship manned by
+dead men with bony fingers and hollow eyes, which had sailed the seas in
+the days of his great-uncle, a stout old mariner who seemed from Davie's
+account to have been a hard drinker. Kipping was reminded of yarns about
+Malay pirates, which he told so quietly, so mildly, that they seemed by
+contrast thrice as terrible. Neddie Benson lugubriously recalled the
+prophecy of the charming fortune-teller and argued the worst of our
+mysterious stranger. "The lady said," he repeated, "that there'd be a dark
+man and a light man and no end o' trouble. She was a nice lady, too." But
+Neddie and his doleful fortune-teller as usual banished our gloom, and the
+forecastle reechoed with hoarse laughter, which grew louder and louder when
+Neddie once again narrated the lady's charms, and at last cried angrily
+that she was as plump as a nice young chicken.
+
+"If you was to ask me," Bill Hayden murmured, "I'd say it was just a sail."
+But no one asked Bill Hayden, and with a few words about his "little wee
+girl at Newburyport," he buried himself in his old blankets and was soon
+asleep.
+
+During the mid-watch that same night, the cook prowled the deck forward
+like a dog sneaking along the wharves. Silently, the whites of his eyes
+gleaming out of the darkness, he moved hither and thither, careful always
+to avoid the second mate's observation. As I watched him, I became more and
+more curious, for I could make nothing of his veering course. He went now
+to starboard, now to larboard, now to the forecastle, now to the steerage,
+always silently, always deliberately. After a while he came over and stood
+beside me.
+
+"It ain't right," he whispered. "Ah tell you, boy, it ain't right."
+
+"What's not right?" I asked.
+
+"De goin's on aboa'd dis ship."
+
+"What goings on?"
+
+"Boy, Ah's been a long time to sea and Ah's cooked foh some bad crews in my
+time, yass, sah, but Ah's gwine tell you, boy, 'cause Ah done took a fancy
+to you, dis am de most iniquitous crew Ah eveh done cook salt hoss foh.
+Yass, sah."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+The negro ignored my question.
+
+"Ah's gwine tell you, boy, dis yeh crew am bad 'nough, but when dah come a
+ha'nt boat a-sailin' oveh yondeh jest at dahk, boy, Ah wish Ah was back
+home whar Ah could somehow come to shoot a rabbit what got a lef'
+hind-foot. Yass, sah."
+
+For a long time he silently paced up and down by the bulwark; but finally I
+saw him momentarily against the light of his dim lantern as he entered his
+own quarters.
+
+Morning came with fine breezes and pleasant weather. At half-past four we
+saw Winerow Point bearing northwest by west. At seven o'clock we took in
+all studding-sails and staysails, and the fore and mizzen topgallant-sails.
+So another day passed and another night. An hour after midnight we took in
+the main topgallantsail, and lay by with our head to the south until six
+bells, when we wore ship, proceeding north again, and saw Java Head at nine
+o'clock to the minute.
+
+We now faced Sunda Strait, the channel that separates Java from Sumatra and
+unites the Indian Ocean with the Java Sea. From the bow of our ship there
+stretched out on one hand and on the other, far beyond the horizon, Borneo,
+Celebes, Banka and Billiton; the Little Sunda Islands--Bali and Lombok,
+Simbawa, Flores and Timor; the China Sea, the Philippines, and farther and
+greater than them all, the mainland of Asia.
+
+While we were still intent on Java Head there came once more the cry, "Sail
+ho!"
+
+This time the sail was not to be mistaken. Captain Whidden trained on it
+the glass, which he shortly handed to Mr. Thomas. "See her go!" the men
+cried. It was true. She was running away from us easily. Now she was hull
+down. Now we could see only her topgallant-sails. Now she again had
+disappeared. But this time we had found, besides her general appearance and
+the cut of her sails, which no seaman could mistake, a mark by which any
+landsman must recognize her: on her fore-topsail there was a white
+lozenge-shaped patch.
+
+At eleven o'clock in the morning, with Prince's Island bearing from north
+to west by south, we entered the Straits of Sunda. At noon we were due east
+of Prince's Island beach and had sighted the third Point of Java and the
+Isle of Cracato.
+
+Fine breezes and a clear sky favored us, and the islands, green and blue
+according to their distance, were beautiful to see. Occasionally we had
+glimpses of little native craft, or descried villages sleeping amid the
+drowsy green of the cocoanut trees. It was a peaceful, beautiful world
+that met our eyes as the Island Princess stood through the Straits and up
+the east coast of Sumatra; the air was warm and pleasant, and the leaves of
+the tufted palms, lacily interwoven, were small in the distance like the
+fronds of ferns in our own land. But Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas
+remained on deck and constantly searched the horizon with the glass; and
+the men worked uneasily, glancing up apprehensively every minute or two,
+and starting at slight sounds. There was reason to be apprehensive, we
+all knew.
+
+On the evening of Friday, August 11, beyond possibility of doubt we sighted
+a ship; and that it was the same which we already had seen at least once,
+the lozenge-shaped patch on the foresail proved to the satisfaction
+of officers and men.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ATTACKED
+
+
+In the morning we were mystified to see that the sail once again had
+disappeared. But to distract us from idle speculations, need of fresh water
+now added to our uneasiness, and we anchored on a mud bottom while the
+captain and Mr. Thomas went ashore and searched in vain for a
+watering-place.
+
+During the day we saw a number of natives fishing in their boats a short
+distance away; but when our own boat approached them, they pulled for the
+shore with all speed and fled into the woods like wild men. Thus the day
+passed,--so quietly and uneventfully that it lulled us into confidence that
+we were safe from harm,--and a new day dawned.
+
+That morning, as we lay at anchor, the strange ship, with the sun shining
+brightly on her sails, boldly reappeared from beyond a distant point, and
+hove to about three miles to the north-northeast. As she lay in plain sight
+and almost within earshot, she seemed no more out of the ordinary than any
+vessel that we might have passed off the coast of New England. But on her
+great foresail, which hung loose now with the wind shaken out of it, there
+was a lozenge-shaped patch of clean new canvas.
+
+Soon word passed from mouth to mouth that the captain and Mr. Falk would go
+in the gig to learn the stranger's name and port.
+
+To a certain extent we were relieved to find that our phantom ship was
+built of solid wood and iron; yet we were decidedly apprehensive as we
+watched the men pull away in the bright sun. The boat became smaller and
+smaller, and the dipping oars flashed like gold.
+
+With his head out-thrust and his chin sunk below the level of his
+shoulders, the cook stood by the galley, in doubt and foreboding, and
+watched the boat pull away.
+
+His voice, when he spoke, gave me a start.
+
+"Look dah, boy! Look dah! Dey's sumpin' funny, yass, sah. 'Tain't safe foh
+to truck with ha'nts, no sah! You can't make dis yeh nigger think a winkin'
+fire-bug of a fly-by-night ship ain't a ha'nt."
+
+"Ha'nts," said Kipping mildly, "ha'nts is bad things for niggers, but they
+don't hurt white men."
+
+"Lemme tell you, you Kipping, it ain't gwine pay you to be disrespectable
+to de cook." Frank stuck his angry face in front of the mild man's. "Ef you
+think--ha!"--He stopped suddenly, his eyes fixed on something far beyond
+Kipping, over whose shoulder he now was looking. "Look dah! Look dah! What
+Ah say? Hey? What Ah say? Look dah! Look dah!"
+
+Startled by the cook's fierce yell, we turned as if a gun had been fired;
+but we saw only that the boat was coming about.
+
+"Look dah! Look dah! See 'em row! Don' tell me dat ain't no ha'nt!" Jumping
+up and down, waving his arms wildly, contorting his irregular features till
+he resembled a gorilla, he continued to yell in frenzy.
+
+Although there seemed to be no cause for any such outburst, the rest of us
+now were alarmed by the behavior of the men in the boat. Having come about,
+they were racing back to the Island Princess as fast as ever they could,
+and the captain and Mr. Falk, if we could judge by their gestures, were
+urging them to even greater efforts.
+
+"Look dah! Look dah! Don't you tell me dey ain't seen a ha'nt, you
+Kipping!"
+
+As they approached, I heard Roger Hamlin say sharply to the mate, "Mr.
+Thomas, that ship yonder is drifting down on us rapidly. See! They're
+sheeting home the topsail."
+
+I could see that Mr. Thomas, who evidently thought Roger's fear groundless,
+was laughing, but I could not hear his reply. In any case he gave no order
+to prepare for action until the boat came within earshot and the captain
+abruptly hailed him and ordered him to trip anchor and prepare to make
+sail.
+
+As the boat came aboard, we heard news that thrilled us. "She's an Arab
+ship," spread the word. "They were waiting for our boat, with no sign of
+hostility until Mr. Falk saw the sunlight strike on a gun-barrel that was
+intended to be hidden behind the bulwark. As the boat veered away, the man
+with the gun started to fire, but another prevented him, probably because
+the distance was so great."
+
+Instantly there was wild activity on the Island Princess. While we loosed
+the sails and sheeted them home and, with anchor aweigh, braced the yards
+and began to move ahead, the idlers were tricing up the boarding nettings
+and double-charging our cannon, of which we carried three--a long gun
+amidships and a pair of stern chasers. Men to work the ship were ordered to
+the ropes. The rest were served pikes and loaded muskets.
+
+We accomplished the various preparations in an incredibly short time, and,
+gathering way, stood ready to receive the stranger should she force us to
+fight.
+
+For the time being we were doubtful of her intentions, and seeing us armed
+and ready, she stood off as if still unwilling to press us more closely.
+But some one aboard her, if I guess aright, resented so tame an end to a
+long pursuit and insisted on at least an exchange of volleys.
+
+[Illustration: Suddenly, in the brief silence that followed the two
+thunderous reports, a pistol shot rang out sharply and I saw Captain
+Whidden spin around and fall.]
+
+Now she came down on us, running easily with the wind on her quarter, and
+gave us a round from her muskets.
+
+"Hold your fire," Captain Whidden ordered. "They're feeling their way."
+
+Emboldened by our silence, she wore ship and came nearer. It seemed now
+that she would attempt to board us, for we spied men waiting with
+grapnels, and she came steadily on while our own men fretted at their
+guns, not daring to fire without the captain's orders, till we could see
+the triumphant sneer on the dark face of her commander.
+
+Now her muskets spoke again. I heard a bullet sing over my head and saw one
+of our own seamen in the waist fall and lie quite still. Should we never
+answer her in kind? In three minutes, it seemed, we should have to meet her
+men hand to hand.
+
+Now our helmsman luffed, and we came closer into the wind, which gave our
+guns a chance.
+
+"Now, then," Captain Whidden cried, "let them have the long gun and hold
+the rest."
+
+With a crash our cannon swept the deck of the Arab, splintering the cabin
+and accomplishing ten times as much damage as all her muskets had done to
+us. But she in turn, exasperated by the havoc we had wrought, fired
+simultaneously her two largest guns at point-blank range.
+
+I ducked behind the bulwark and looked back along the deck. One ball had
+hit the scuttle-butt and had splashed the water fifteen feet in every
+direction. Another had splintered the cross jack-yard. Suddenly, in the
+brief silence that followed the two thunderous reports, a single
+pistol-shot rang out sharply and I saw Captain Whidden spin round and fall.
+
+Our own guns, as we came about, sent an answer that cut the Arab's lower
+sail to ribbons, disabled many men and, I am confident, killed several. But
+there was no time to load again. Although by now we showed our stern to the
+enemy, and had a fair--chance to outstrip her in a long race, her greater
+momentum was bringing her down upon us rapidly. From aft came the order--it
+was Mr. Thomas who gave it,--"All hands to the pikes and repel boarders!"
+
+There was, however, no more fighting. Our assailants took measure of the
+stout nets and the strong battery of pikes, and, abandoning the whole
+unlucky adventure, bore away on a new course.
+
+One man forward was killed and four were badly hurt. Mr. Thomas sat with
+his back against the cabin, very white of face, with streams of red running
+from his nostrils and his mouth; and Captain Whidden lay dead on the deck.
+An hour later word passed through the ship that Mr. Thomas, too, had died.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+BAD SIGNS
+
+
+It was strange that, while some of us in the forecastle were much cast down
+by the tragic events of the day, others should seem to be put in really
+good humor by it all. Neddie Benson soberly shook his head from time to
+time; old Bill Hayden lay in his bunk without even a word about his "little
+wee girl in Newburyport," and occasionally complained of not feeling well;
+and various others of the crew faced the future with frank hopelessness.
+
+For my own part, it seemed to me as unreal as a nightmare that Captain
+Joseph Whidden actually had been shot dead by a band of Arab pirates. I was
+bewildered--indeed, stunned--by the incredible suddenness of the calamity.
+It was so complete, so appallingly final! To me, a boy still in his 'teens,
+that first intimate association with violent death would have been in
+itself terrible, and I keenly felt the loss of our chief mate. But Captain
+Whidden to me was far more than master of the ship. He had been my father's
+friend since long before I was born; and from the days when I first
+discriminated between the guests at my father's house, I had counted him as
+also a friend of mine. Never had I dreamed that so sad an hour would darken
+my first voyage.
+
+Kipping, on the other hand, and Davie Paine and the carpenter seemed
+actually well pleased with what had happened. They lolled around with an
+air of exasperating superiority when they saw any of the rest of us looking
+at them; and now and then they exchanged glances that I was at a loss to
+understand until all at once a new thought dawned on me: since the captain
+and the first mate were dead, the command of the ship devolved upon
+Mr. Falk, the second mate.
+
+No wonder that Kipping and Davie and the carpenter and all the rest of that
+lawless clique were well pleased. No wonder that old Bill Hayden and some
+of the others, for whom Kipping and his friends had not a particle of use
+were downcast by the prospect.
+
+I was amazed at my own stupidity in not realizing it before, and above all
+else I now longed to talk with someone whom I could trust--Roger Hamlin by
+preference; as second choice, my friend the cook. But for the time being I
+was disappointed in this. Almost immediately Mr. Falk summoned all hands
+aft.
+
+"Men," he said, putting on a grave face that seemed to me assumed for the
+occasion, "men, we've come through a dangerous time, and we are lucky to
+have come alive out of the bad scrape that we were in. Some of us haven't
+come through so well. It's a sad thing for a ship to lose an officer, and
+it is twice as sad to lose two fine officers like Captain Whidden and Mr.
+Thomas. I'll now read the service for the burial of the dead, and after
+that I'll have something more to say to you."
+
+One of the men spoke in an undertone, and Mr. Falk cried, "What's that?"
+
+"If you please, sir," the man said, fidgeting nervously, "couldn't we go
+ashore and bury them decently?"
+
+Others had thought of the same thing, and they showed it by their faces;
+but Mr. Falk scowled and replied, "Nonsense! We'd be murdered in cold
+blood."
+
+So we stood there, bareheaded, silent, sad at heart, and heard the droning
+voice of the second mate,--even then he could not hide his unrighteous
+satisfaction,--who read from a worn prayer-book, that had belonged to
+Captain Whidden himself, the words committing the bodies of three men to
+the deep, their souls to God.
+
+When the brief, perfunctory service was over, Mr. Falk put away the
+prayer-book,--I verily believe he put away with it all fear of the
+Lord,--folded his arms and faced us arrogantly.
+
+"By the death of Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas," he said, "I have become
+the rightful master of this ship. Now I've got a few things to say to you,
+and I'm going to have them understood. If you heed them and work smartly,
+you'll get along as well as you deserve. If you don't heed them, you'd
+better be dead and done with it. If you don't heed them--" he sneered
+disagreeably--"if you don't heed them I'll lash the skin off the back of
+every bloody mother's son of ye. This voyage from now on is to be carried
+out for the best interests of all concerned." He stopped and smiled and
+repeated significantly, "_Of_ ALL _concerned_." After another pause, in
+which some of the men exchanged knowing glances, he went on, "I have no
+doubt that the most of us will get along as well as need be. So far, well
+and good. But if there's those that try to cross my bows,"--he swore
+roundly,--"heaven help'em! They'll need it. That's all. Wait! One thing
+more: we've got to have officers, and as I know you'll not be bold to pick
+from among yourselves, I'll save you the trouble. Kipping from this time on
+will be chief mate. You'll take his things aft, and you'll obey him from
+now on and put the handle to his name. Paine will be second mate. That's
+all. Go forward."
+
+Kipping and Davie Paine! I was thunderstruck. But some of the men exchanged
+glances and smiles as before, and I saw by his expression that Roger,
+although ill pleased, was by no means so amazed as I should have expected
+him to be.
+
+For the last time as seaman, Kipping, mild and quiet, came to the
+forecastle. But as he packed his bag and prepared to leave us, he smiled
+constantly with a detestable quirk of his mouth, and before going he
+stopped beside downcast old Bill Hayden. "Straighten up, be a man," he said
+softly; "I'll see that you're treated right." He fairly drawled the words,
+so mildly did he speak; but when he had finished, his manner instantly
+changed. Thrusting out his chin and narrowing his eyes, he deliberately
+drew back his foot and gave old Bill one savage kick.
+
+I was right glad that chance had placed me in the second mate's watch.
+
+As for Davie Paine, he was so overcome by the stroke of fortune that had
+resulted in his promotion, that he could not even collect his belongings.
+We helped him pile them into his chest, which he fastened with trembling
+fingers, and gave him a hand on deck. But even his deep voice had failed
+him for the time being, and when he took leave of us, he whispered
+piteously, '"Fore the Lord, I dunno how it happened. I ain't never learned
+to figger and I can't no more than write my name."
+
+What was to become of us? Our captain was a weak officer. Our present chief
+mate no man of us trusted.
+
+Our second mate was inexperienced, incompetent, illiterate. More than ever
+I longed to talk with Roger Hamlin, but there was no opportunity that
+night.
+
+Our watch on deck was a farce, for old Davie was so unfamiliar with his new
+duties and so confused by his sudden eminence that, according to the men at
+the wheel, he didn't know north from south or aloft from alow. Evading his
+confused glances, I sought the galley, and without any of the usual
+complicated formalities was admitted to where the cook was smoking his rank
+pipe.
+
+Rolling his eyes until the whites gleamed, he told me the following
+astounding story.
+
+"Boy," he said, "dis am de most unmitigated day ol' Frank ever see. Cap'n,
+he am a good man and now he's a dead un. Mistah Thomas he am a good man and
+now _he's_ a dead un. What Ah tell you about dem ha'nts? Ef Ah could have
+kotched a rabbit with a lef' hind-leg, Ah guess we'd be better off. Hey?
+Mistah Falk, he am cap'n--Lo'd have mercy on us! Dat Kipping, he am chief
+mate--Lo'd have mercy on us mis'able sinners! Davie Paine, he am second
+mate--Lo'd perserve ou' souls! Ah guess you don't know what Ah heah Mistah
+Falk say to stew'd! He says, 'Stew'd, we got ev'ything--ev'ything. And we
+ain't broke a single law!' Now tell me what he mean by dat? What's stew'd
+got, Ah want to know? But dat ain't all--no, sah, dat ain't all."
+
+He leaned forward, the whites of his eyes rolling, his fixed frown more
+ominous than ever. "Boy, Ah see 'em when dey's dead, Ah did. Ah see 'em
+all. Mistah Thomas, he have a big hole in de middle of his front, and dat
+po' old sailo' man he have a big hole in de middle of his front. Yass, sah,
+Ah see 'em! But cap'n, he have a little roun' hole in the back of his
+head.--Yass, sah--_he was shot f'om behine_!"
+
+The sea that night was as calm and as untroubled as if the day had passed
+in Sabbath quiet. It seemed impossible that we had endured so much, that
+Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas were dead, that the space of only
+twenty-four hours had wrought such a change in the fortunes of all on
+board.
+
+[Illustration: We helped him pile his belongings into his chest
+and gave him a hand on deck.]
+
+I could not believe that one of our own men had shot our captain. Surely
+the bullet must have hit him when he was turning to give an order or to
+oversee some particular duty. And yet I could not forget the cook's words.
+They hummed in my ears. They sounded in the strumming of the rigging, in
+the "talking" of the ship:--
+
+"A little roun' hole in the back of his head--yass, sah--he was shot f'om
+behine."
+
+Without the captain and Mr. Thomas the Island Princess was like a strange
+vessel. Both Kipping and Davie Paine had been promoted from the starboard
+watch, leaving us shorthanded; so a queer, self-confident fellow named
+Blodgett was transferred from the chief mate's watch to ours. But even so
+there were fewer hands and more work, and the spirit of the crew seemed to
+have changed. Whereas earlier in the voyage most of the men had gone
+smartly about their duties, always glad to lend a hand or join in a
+chantey, and with an eye for the profit and welfare of the owners as well
+as of themselves, now there came over the ship, silently, imperceptibly,
+yet so swiftly and completely that, although no man saw it come, in
+twenty-four hours it was with us and upon us in all its deadening and
+discouraging weight, a spirit of lassitude and procrastination. You would
+have expected some of the men to find it hard to give old Davie Paine quite
+all the respect to which his new berth entitled him, and for my own part I
+liked Kipping less even than I had liked Mr. Falk. But although my own
+prejudice should have enabled me to understand any minor lapses from the
+strict discipline of life aboard ship, much occurred in the next
+twenty-four hours that puzzled me.
+
+For one thing, those men whom I had thought most likely to accord Kipping
+and Mr. Falk due respect were most careless in their work and in the small
+formalities observed between officers and crew. The carpenter and the
+steward, for example, spent a long time in the galley at an hour when they
+should have been busy with their own duties. I was near when they came out,
+and heard the cook's parting words: "Yass, sah, yass, sah, it ain't
+neveh no discombobilation to help out gen'lems, sah. Yass, sah, no, sah."
+
+And when, a little later, I myself knocked at the door, I got a reception
+that surprised me beyond measure.
+
+"Who dah," the cook cried in his usual brusque voice. "Who dah knockin' at
+mah door?"
+
+Coming out, he brushed past me, and stood staring fiercely from side to
+side. I knew, of course, his curiously indirect methods, and I expected him
+by some quick motion or muttered command to summon me, as always before,
+into his hot little cubby-hole. Never was boy more taken aback! "Who dah
+knockin' at mah door?" he said again, standing within two feet of my elbow,
+looking past me not two inches from my nose. "Humph! Somebody knockin' at
+mah door better look at what dey doin' or dey gwine git into a peck of
+trouble."
+
+He turned his back on me and reentered the galley.
+
+Then I looked aft, and saw Kipping and the steward grinning broadly.
+Before, I had been disconcerted. Now I was enraged. How had they turned old
+black Frank against me, I wondered? Kipping and the steward, whom the negro
+disliked above all people on board! So the steward and the carpenter and
+Kipping were working hand in glove! And Mr. Falk probably was in the same
+boat with them. Where was Roger Hamlin, and what was he doing as supercargo
+to protect the goods below decks? Then I laughed shortly, though a little
+angrily, at my own childish impatience.
+
+Certainly any suspicions of danger to the cargo were entirely without
+foundations. Mr. Falk--Captain Falk, I must call him now--might have a
+disagreeable personality, but there was nothing to indicate that he was not
+in most respects a competent officer, or that the ship and cargo would
+suffer at his hands. The cook had been companionable in his own peculiar
+way and a very convenient friend indeed; but, after all, I could get along
+very well on my own resources.
+
+The difference that a change of officers makes in the life and spirit of a
+ship's crew is surprising to one unfamiliar with the sea. Captain Whidden
+had been a gentleman and a first-class sailor; by ordering our life
+strictly, though not harshly or severely, he had maintained that efficient,
+smoothly working organization which is best and pleasantest for all
+concerned. But Captain Falk was a master whose sails were cut on another
+pattern. He lacked Captain Whidden's straightforward, searching gaze. From
+the corners of his mouth lines drooped unpleasantly around his chin. His
+voice was not forceful and commanding. I was confident that under ordinary
+conditions he never would have been given a ship; I doubted even if he
+would have got a chief mate's berth. But fortune had played into his hands,
+and he now was our lawful master, resistance to whom could be construed as
+mutiny and punished in any court in the land.
+
+Never, while Captain Whidden commanded the ship, would the steward and the
+carpenter have deserted their work and have hidden themselves away in the
+cook's galley. Never, I was positive, would such a pair of officers as
+Kipping and old Davie Paine have been promoted from the forecastle. To be
+sure, the transgressions of the carpenter and the steward were only petty
+as yet, and if no worse came of our new situation, I should be very foolish
+to take it all so seriously. But it was not easy to regard our situation
+lightly. There were too many straws to show the direction of the wind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE TREASURE-SEEKER
+
+
+It was a starlit night while we still lingered off the coast of Sumatra for
+water and fresh vegetables. The land was low and black against the steely
+green of the sky, and a young moon like a silver thread shone in the west.
+Blodgett, the new man in our watch, was the centre of a little group on the
+forecastle.
+
+He was small and wrinkled and very wise. The more I saw and heard of him,
+the more I marveled that he had not attracted my attention before; but up
+to this point in the voyage it was only by night that he had appeared
+different from other men, and I thought of him only as a prowler in the
+dark.
+
+In some ways he was like a cat. By day he would sit in corners in the sun
+when opportunity offered, or lurk around the galley, shirking so brazenly,
+that the men were amused rather than angry. Even at work he was as slow and
+drowsy as an old cat, half opening his sleepy eyes when the officers called
+him to account, and receiving an occasional kick or cuff with the same mild
+surprise that a favorite cat might show. But once darkness had fallen,
+Blodgett was a different man. He became nervously wakeful. His eyes
+distended and his face lighted with strange animation. He walked hither and
+yon. He fairly arched his neck. And sometimes, when some ordinary incident
+struck his peculiar humor, he would throw back his head, open his great
+mouth, and utter a screech of wild laughter for all the world like the yowl
+of a tom-cat.
+
+On that particular night he walked the forecastle, keeping close to the
+bulwarks, till the rest of us assembled by the rigging and watched him with
+a kind of fascination. After a time he saw us gathered there and came over
+to where we were. His eyes were large and his wrinkled features twitched
+with eagerness. He seemed very old; he had traveled to the farthest lands.
+
+"Men," he cried in his thin, windy voice, "yonder's the moon."
+
+The moon indeed was there. There was no reason to gainsay him. He stood
+with it over his left shoulder and extended his arms before him, one
+pointing somewhat to the right, the other to the left. "The right hand is
+the right way," he cried, "but the left we'll never leave."
+
+We stared at the man and wondered if he were mad.
+
+"No," he said, smiling at our puzzled glances, "we'll never leave the
+left."
+
+"Belay that talk," said one of the men sharply. "Ye'll have to steer a
+clearer course than that if you want us to follow you."
+
+Blodgett smiled. "The course is clear," he replied. "Yonder"--he waved his
+right hand--"is Singapore and the Chinese Sea and Whampoa. It's the right
+course. Our orders is for that course. Our cargo is for that course. It's
+the course that will make money for the owners. It's the right--you
+understand?--my right hand and the right course according to orders. But
+yonder"--this time he waved his left hand--"is the course that won't be
+left. And yet it's the left you know--my left hand."
+
+He explained his feeble little joke with an air of pride.
+
+"Why won't it be left?" the gruff seaman demanded.
+
+"Because," said Blodgett, "we ain't going to leave it. There's gold there
+and no end of treasure. Do you suppose Captain Falk is going to leave it
+all for some one else to get? He's going to sail through Malacca Strait and
+across the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta. That's what he's going to do. I've
+been in India myself and seen the heaps of gold lying on the ground by the
+money-changer's door and no body watching it but a sleepy Gentoo."
+
+"But what's this treasure you're talking about," some one asked.
+
+"Sure," said Blodgett in a husky whisper, "it's a treasure such as never
+was heard of before. There's barrels and barrels of gold and diamonds and
+emeralds and rubies and no end of such gear. There's idols with crowns of
+precious stones, and eyes in their carved heads that would pay a king's
+ransom. There's money enough in gold mohurs and rupees to buy the Bank of
+England."
+
+It was a cock-and-bull story that the little old man told us; but, absurd
+though it was, he had an air of impressive sincerity; and although every
+one of us would have laughed the yarn out of meeting had it been told of
+Captain Whidden, affairs had changed in the last days aboard ship.
+Certainly we did not trust Captain Falk. I thought of the cook's dark
+words, "A little roun' hole in the back of his head--he was shot f'om
+behine!" As we followed the direction of Blodgett's two hands,--the right
+to the northeast and the Chinese shore, the left to the northwest and the
+dim lowlands of Sumatra that lay along the road to Burma,--anything seemed
+possible. Moon-madness was upon us, and we were carried away by the mystery
+of the night.
+
+Such madness is not uncommon. Of tales in the fore-castle during a long
+voyage there is no end. Extraordinary significance is attributed to trivial
+happenings in the daily life of the crew, and the wonders of the sea and
+the land are overshadowed completely by simple incidents that superstitious
+shipmates are sure to exaggerate and to dwell upon.
+
+After a time, though, as Blodgett walked back and forth along the bulwark,
+like a cat that will not go into the open, my sanity came back to me.
+
+"That's all nonsense," I said--perhaps too sharply; "Mr. Falk is an honest
+seaman. His whole future would be ruined if he attempted any such thing as
+that."
+
+"Ay, hear the boy," Blodgett muttered sarcastically. "What does the boy
+think a man rich enough to buy all the ships in the king's navy will care
+for such a future as Captain Falk has in front of him? Hgh! A boy that
+don't know enough to call his captain by his proper title!"
+
+Blodgett fairly bristled in his indignation, and I said no more, although I
+knew well enough--or thought I did--that such a scheme was quite too wild
+to be plausible. Captain Falk might play a double game, but not such a
+silly double game as that.
+
+"No," said Bill Hayden solemnly, as if voicing my own thought, "the captain
+ain't going to spoil his good name like that." Poor, stupid old Bill!
+
+Blodgett snorted angrily, but the others laughed at Bill--silly old butt of
+the forecastle, daft about his little girl!--and after speculating at
+length concerning the treasure that Blodgett had described so vaguely, fell
+at last into a hot argument about how far a skipper could disobey the
+orders of his owners without committing piracy.
+
+Thus began the rumor that revealed the scatterwitted convictions so
+characteristic of the strange, cat-like Blodgett, which later were to lead
+almost to death certain simple members of the crew; which served, by a
+freak of chance, to involve poor Bill Hayden in an affair that came to a
+tragic end; and which, by a whim of fortune almost as remote, though
+happier, placed me in closer touch with Roger Hamlin than I had been since
+the Island Princess sailed from Salem harbor.
+
+An hour later I saw the cook standing silently by his galley. He gave me
+neither look nor word, although he must have known that I was watching him,
+but only puffed at his rank old pipe and stared at the stars and the hills.
+I wondered if the jungle growth reminded him of his own African tropics; if
+behind his grim, seamed face an unsuspected sense of poetry lurked, a sort
+of half-beast, half-human imagination.
+
+Never glancing at me, never indicating by so much as a quiver of his black
+features that he had perceived my presence, he sighed deeply, walked to the
+rail and knocked the dead ashes from his pipe into the water. He then
+turned and went into the galley and barricaded himself against intruders,
+there to stay until, some time in the night, he should seek his berth in
+the steerage for the few hours of deep sleep that were all his great body
+required. But as he passed me I heard him murmuring to himself, "Dat Bill
+Hayden, he betteh look out, yass, sah. He say Mistah Captain Falk don't
+want to go to spoil his good name. Dat Hay den he betteh look out."
+
+With a bang of his plank door the old darky shut himself away from all of
+us in the darkness of his little kingdom of pots and pans.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+WHICH APPROACHES A CRISIS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN GOLD
+
+
+Unquestionably the negro had known that I was there. Never otherwise could
+he have ignored me so completely. I was certain too, that his cryptic
+remarks about Bill Hayden were intended for my ears, for he never acted
+without a reason, obscure, perhaps, and far-fetched, but always, according
+to his own queer notions, sufficient.
+
+Sometimes it seemed as if he despised me; sometimes, as if he were
+concealing a warm, friendly regard for me.
+
+An hour later, hearing the murmer of low voices, I discovered a little
+group of men by the mainmast; and moved by the curiosity that more than
+once had led me where I had no business to go, I silently approached.
+
+"Ah," said one of the men, "so you're keeping a weather eye out for my good
+name, are you?" It was Captain Falk.
+
+I was startled. It seemed as if the old African were standing at my
+shoulder, saying, "What did Ah told you, hey?" The cook had used almost
+those very words. Where, I wondered, had he got them? It was almost
+uncanny.
+
+"No, sir," came the reply,--it was poor Bill Hayden's voice,--"no, sir, I
+didn't say that. I said--"
+
+"Well, what _did_ you say? Speak up!"
+
+"Why, sir, it--well, it wasn't that, I know. I wouldn't never ha' said
+that. I--well, sir, it sounded something like that, I got to admit--I--I
+ain't so good at remembering, sir, as I might be."
+
+The shadowy figures moved closer together.
+
+"You'll admit, then, that it _sounded_ like that?" There was the thud of a
+quick blow. "I'll show you. I don't care what you _said_, as long as that
+was what you _meant_. Take that! I'll show you."
+
+"Oh!--I--that's just it, sir, don't hit me!--It may have sounded like that,
+but--Oh!--it never meant anything like that. I can't remember just how the
+words was put together--I ain't so good at remembering but--Oh!--"
+
+The scene made me feel sick, it was so brutal; yet there was nothing that
+the rest of us could do to stop it.
+
+Captain Falk was in command of the ship.
+
+I heard a mild laugh that filled me with rage. "That's the way to make 'em
+take back their talk, captain. Give him a good one," said the mild voice.
+"He ain't the only one that 'll be better for a sound beating."
+
+
+There was a scuffle of footsteps, then I heard Bill cry out, "Oh--oh!--oh!"
+
+Suddenly a man broke from the group and fled along the deck.
+
+"Come back here, you scoundrel!" the captain cried with vile oaths; "come
+back here, or I swear I'll seize you up and lash you to a bloody pulp."
+
+The fugitive now stood in the bow, trembling, and faced those who were
+approaching him. "Don't," he cried piteously, "I didn't go to do nothing."
+
+"Oh, no, not you!" said the mild voice, followed by a mild laugh. "He
+didn't do nothing, captain."
+
+"Not he!" Captain Falk muttered. "I'll show him who's captain here."
+
+There was no escape for the unfortunate man. They closed in on him and
+roughly dragged him from his retreat straight aft to the quarter-deck, and
+there I heard their brief discussion.
+
+"Hadn't you better call up the men, captain?" asked the mild voice. "It'll
+do 'em good, I'll warrant you."
+
+"No," the captain replied, hotly. "This is a personal affair. Strip him and
+seize him up."
+
+I heard nothing more for a few minutes, but I could see them moving about,
+and presently I distinguished Bill's bare back and arms as they
+spread-eagled him to the rigging.
+
+Then the rope whistled in the air and Bill moaned.
+
+Unable to endure the sight, I was turning away, when some one coming from
+the cabin broke in upon the scene.
+
+"Well," said Roger Hamlin, "what's all this about?"
+
+Roger's calm voice and composed manner were so characteristic of him that
+for the moment I could almost imagine myself at home in Salem and merely
+passing him on the street.
+
+"I'll have you know, sir," said Captain Falk, "that I'm master here."
+
+"Evidently, sir."
+
+"Then what do you mean, sir, by challenging me like that?"
+
+"From what I have heard, I judge that the punishment is out of proportion
+to the offense, even if the steward's yarn was true."
+
+"I'll have you know, that I'm the only man aboard this ship that has any
+judgment," Falk snarled.
+
+"Judgment ?" Roger exclaimed; and the twist he gave the word was so funny
+that some one actually snickered.
+
+"Yes, judgment !" Falk roared; and he turned on Roger with all the anger of
+his mean nature choking his voice. "I'll--I'll beat you, you young upstart,
+you! I'll beat you in that man's place," he cried, with a string of oaths.
+
+"No," said Roger very coolly, "I think you won't."
+
+"By heaven, I will!"
+
+The two men faced each other like two cocks in the pit at the instant
+before the battle. There was a deathly silence on deck.
+
+Such a scene, as I saw it there, if put on the stage in a theatre, would be
+a drama in itself without word or action. The sky was bright with stars;
+the land lay low and dark against the horizon; the sea whispered round the
+ship and sparkled with golden phosphorescence. Over our heads the masts
+towered to slender black shafts, which at that lofty height seemed far too
+frail to support the great network of rigging and spars and close-furled
+canvas. Dwarfed by the tall masts, by the distances of the sea, and by the
+vastness of the heavens, the small black figures stood silent on the
+quarter-deck. But one of those men was bound half-naked to the rigging, and
+two faced each other in attitudes that by outline alone, for we could
+discern the features of neither, revealed antagonism and defiance.
+
+"No," said Roger once more, very coolly, "I think you won't."
+
+As the captain lifted his rope to hit Bill again, Roger stepped forward.
+
+The captain looked sharply at him; then with a shrug he said, "Oh, well,
+the fellow's had enough. Cut him down, cut him down."
+
+So they unlashed Bill, and he came forward with his clothes in his arms and
+one long, raw welt across his back.
+
+"Now, what did I say?" he whimpered. "What did I say to make 'em do like
+that?"
+
+What had he said, indeed? Certainly nothing culpable. Some one had twisted
+his innocent remarks in such a way as to irritate the captain and had
+carried tales to the cabin. With decent officers such a thing never would
+have happened. Affairs had run a sad course since Captain Falk had read the
+burial service over Captain Whidden and Mr. Thomas, both of whom had been
+strict, fair, honorable gentlemen. There was a sober time in the forecastle
+that night, and none of us had much to say.
+
+Next day we sent a boat ashore again, and got information that led us to
+sail along five miles farther, where there was a settlement from which we
+got a good supply of water and vegetables. This took another day, and on
+the morning of the day following we made sail once more and laid our course
+west of Lingga Island, which convinced us for a time that we really were
+about to bear away through Malacca Strait and on to Burma, at the very
+least.
+
+I almost believed it myself, India seemed so near; and Blodgett, sleepy by
+day, wakeful by night, prowled about with an air of triumph. But in the
+forenoon watch Roger Hamlin came forward openly and told me certain things
+that were more momentous than any treasure-hunting trip to India that
+Blodgett ever dreamed of.
+
+Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping--I suppose they must be given their titles
+now--watched him, and I could see that they didn't like it. They exchanged
+glances and stared after him suspiciously, even resentfully; but there
+was nothing that they could do or say. So he came on slowly and
+confidently, looking keenly from one man to another as he passed.
+
+By this time the two parties on board were sharply divided, and from the
+attitude of the men as they met Roger's glance their partisanship was
+pretty plainly revealed. The two from Boston, who were, I was confident,
+on friendly and even familiar terms with Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping, gave
+him a half-concealed sneer. There was no doubt where their sympathies would
+lie, should Roger cross courses with our new master. The carpenter, working
+on a plank laid on deck, heard him coming, glanced up, and seeing who it
+was, continued at his labor without moving so much as a hair's breadth to
+let him by; the steward looked him in the eye brazenly and impersonally;
+and others of the crew, among them the strange Blodgett, treated him with a
+certain subtle rudeness, even contempt. Yet here and there a man was glad
+to see him coming and gave him a cordial nod, or a cheerful "Ay, ay, sir,"
+in answer to whatever observation he let fall.
+
+The cook alone, as I watched the scene with close interest, I could not
+understand. To a certain extent he seemed surly, to a certain extent,
+subservient. Perhaps he intended that we--and others--should be mystified.
+
+One thing I now realized for the first time: although the crew was divided
+into two cliques, the understanding was much more complete on the side of
+Captain Falk. Among those who enjoyed the favor of our new officers there
+was, I felt sure, some secret agreement, perhaps even some definite
+organization. There seemed to be a unity of thought and manner that only a
+common purpose could explain, whereas the rest drifted as the wind blew.
+
+"Ben," Roger said, coming to me where I sat on the forecastle, "I want to
+talk to you. Step over by the mast."
+
+I followed him, though surprised.
+
+"Here we can see on all sides," he said. "There are no hiding-places within
+earshot. Ben"--He hesitated as if to find the right words.
+
+All were watching us now, the captain and the mate from the quarter-deck,
+the others from wherever they happened to be.
+
+"I am loath to draw your sister's younger brother into danger," Roger
+began. His adjective was tactfully chosen. "I am almost equally reluctant
+to implicate you in what seems likely to confront us, because you are an
+old friend of mine and a good deal younger than I am. But when the time
+comes to go home, Ben, I'm sure we want to be able to look your sister and
+all the others squarely in the eyes, with our hands clean and our
+consciences clear--if we go home. How about it, Ben?"
+
+
+I was too bewildered to answer, and in Roger's eyes something of his old
+twinkle appeared.
+
+"Ultimately," he continued, grave once more and speaking still in enigmas,
+"we shall be vindicated in any case. But I fear that, before then, I, for
+one, shall have to clasp hands with mutiny, perhaps with piracy. How would
+you like that, Ben, with a thundering old fight against odds, a fight that
+likely enough will leave us to sleep forever on one of these green islands
+hereabouts?"
+
+Still I did not understand.
+
+Roger regarded me thoughtfully. "Tell me all that you know about our
+cargo."
+
+"Why," said I, finding my tongue at last, "it's ginseng and woollen goods
+for Canton. That's all I know."
+
+"Then you don't know that at this moment there is one hundred thousand
+dollars in gold in the hold of the Island Princess?"
+
+"What?" I gasped.
+
+"One hundred thousand dollars in gold."
+
+I could not believe my ears. Certainly, so far as I was concerned, the
+secret had been well kept.
+
+Then a new thought came to me, "Does Captain Falk know?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," said Roger, "Captain Falk knows."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A STRANGE TALE
+
+
+Roger Hamlin's words were to linger a long time in my ears, and so far as I
+then could see, there was little to say in reply. A hundred thousand
+dollars in gold had bought, soul and body, many a better man than Captain
+Falk. At that very moment Falk was watching us from the quarter-deck with
+an expression on his face that was partly an amused smile, partly a sneer.
+Weak and conceited though he was, he was master of that ship and crew in
+more ways than one.
+
+But Roger had not finished. "Do you remember, Ben," he continued in a low
+voice, but otherwise unmindful of those about us, "that some half a dozen
+years ago, when Thomas Webster was sore put to it for enough money to
+square his debts and make a clean start, the brig Vesper, on which he had
+sent a venture, returned him a profit so unbelievably great that he was
+able to pay his creditors and buy from the Shattucks the old Eastern
+Empress, which he fitted out for the voyage to Sumatra that saved his
+fortunes?"
+
+I remembered it vaguely--I had been only a small boy when it happened--and
+I listened with keenest interest. The Websters owned the Island Princess.
+
+"Not a dozen people know all the story of that voyage. It's been a kind of
+family secret with the Websters. Perhaps they're ashamed to be so deeply
+indebted to a Chinese merchant. Well, it's a story I shouldn't tell under
+other conditions, but in the light of all that's come to pass, it's best
+you should hear the whole tale, Ben; and in some ways it's a fine tale,
+too. The Websters, as you probably know, had had bad luck, what with three
+wrecks and pirates in the West Indies. They were pretty much by the head in
+those days, and it was a dark outlook before them, when young Webster
+signed the Vesper's articles as first officer and went aboard, with all
+that the old man could scrape together for a venture, and with the future
+of his family hanging in the balance. At Whampoa young Webster went up to
+the Hong along with the others, and drove what bargains he could, and
+cleared a tidy little sum. But it was nowhere near enough to save the
+family. If only they could get the money to tide them over, they'd weather
+the gale. If not, they'd go on a lee shore. Certain men--you'd know their
+names, but such things are better forgotten--were waiting to attach the
+ships the Websters had on the ways, and if the ships were attached there
+would be nothing left for the Websters but stools in somebody's
+counting-house.
+
+"As I've heard the story, young Webster was waiting by the river for his
+boat, with a face as long as you'd hope to see, when a Chinese who'd been
+watching him from a little distance came up and addressed him in such
+pidgin English as he could muster and asked after his father. Of course
+young Webster was taken by surprise, but he returned a civil answer, and
+the two fell to talking together. It seemed that, once upon a time, when
+the Chinese was involved, head and heels, with some rascally down-east
+Yankee, old man Webster had come to the rescue and had got him out of the
+scrape with his yellow hide whole and his moneybags untapped.
+
+"The Chinaman seemed to suspect from the boy's long face that all was not
+as it should be, and he squeezed more or less of the truth out of the
+young fellow, had him up to the Hong again, gave him various gifts, and
+sent him back to America with five teak-wood chests. Just five ordinary
+teak-wood chests--but in those teak-wood chests, Ben, was the money that
+put the Websters on their feet again. The hundred thousand dollars below
+is for that Chinese merchant."
+
+It was a strange tale, but stranger tales than that were told in the old
+town from which we had sailed.
+
+"And Captain Falk--?" I began questioningly.
+
+"Captain Falk was never thought of as a possible master of this ship."
+
+"Will he try to steal the money?"
+
+Roger raised his brows. "Steal it? Steal is a disagreeable word. He thinks
+he has a grievance because he was not given the chief mate's berth to begin
+with. He says, at all events, that he will not hand over any such sum to a
+yellow heathen. He thinks he can return it to the owners two-fold. Although
+he seldom reads his Bible, I believe he referred to the man who was given
+ten talents."
+
+"But the owners' orders!" I exclaimed.
+
+"The owners' orders in that respect were secret. They were issued to
+Captain Whidden and to me, and Captain Falk refuses to accept my version of
+them."
+
+"And you?"
+
+Roger smiled and looked me hard in the eye. "I am going to see that they
+are carried out," he said. "The Websters would be grievously disappointed
+if this commission were not discharged. Also--" his eyes twinkled in the
+old way--"I am not convinced that Captain Falk is in all respects an
+honest--no, let us not speak too harshly--let us say, a _reliable_ man."
+
+"So there'll be a fight," I mused.
+
+"We'll see," Roger replied. "In any case, you know the story. Are you with
+me?"
+
+After fifty years I can confess without shame that I was frightened when
+Roger asked me that question, for Roger and I were only two, and Falk, by
+hook or by crook, had won most of the others to his side. There was Bill
+Hayden, to be sure, on whom we could count; but he was a weak soul at best,
+and of the cook's loyalty to Roger and whatever cause he might espouse I
+now held grave doubts. Yet I managed to reply, "Yes, Roger, I am with you."
+
+I thought of my sister when I said it, and of the white flutter of her
+handkerchief, which had waved so bravely from the old wharf when Roger and
+I sailed out of Salem harbor. After all, I was glad even then that I had
+answered as I did.
+
+"I'll have more to say later," said Roger; "but if I stay here much longer
+now, Falk and Kipping will be breaking in upon us." And, turning, he coolly
+walked aft.
+
+Falk and Kipping were still watching us with sneers, and not a few of the
+crew gave us hostile glances as we separated. But I looked after Roger with
+an affection and a confidence that I was too young fully to appreciate. I
+only realized that he was upright and fearless, and that I was ready to
+follow him anywhere.
+
+More and more I was afraid of the influence that Captain Falk had
+established in the forecastle. More and more it seemed as if he actually
+had entered into some lawless conspiracy with the men. Certainly they
+grumbled less than before, and accepted greater discomforts with better
+grace; and although I found myself excluded from their councils without any
+apparent reason, I overheard occasional snatches of talk from which I
+gathered that they derived great satisfaction from their scheme, whatever
+it was. Even the cook would have none of me in the galley of an evening;
+and Roger in the cabin where no doubt he was fighting his own battles, was
+far away from the green hand in the forecastle. I was left to my own
+devices and to Bill Hayden.
+
+To a great extent, I suppose, it counted against me that I was the son of a
+gentleman. But if I was left alone forward, so Roger, I learned now and
+then, was left alone aft.
+
+Continually I puzzled over the complacency of the men. They would nod and
+smile and glance at me pityingly, even when I was getting my meat from the
+same kids and my tea from the same pot; and chance phrases, which I caught
+now and then, added to my uneasiness.
+
+Once old Blodgett, prowling like a cat in the night, was telling how he was
+going to "take his money and buy a little place over Ipswich way. There's
+nice little places over Ipswich way where a man can settle snug as you
+please and buy him a wife and end his days in comfort. We'll go home by way
+of India, too, I'll warrant you, and take each of us our handful of round
+red rubies. Right's right, but right'll be left--mind what I tell you."
+Another time--on the same day, as I now recall it--I overheard the
+carpenter saying that he was going to build a brick house in Boston up on
+Temple Place. "And there'll be fan-lights over the door," he said, "their
+panels as thin as rose-leaves, and leaded glass in a fine pattern." The
+carpenter was a craftsman who aspired to be an artist.
+
+But where did old Blodgett or the carpenter hope to get the money to
+indulge the tastes of a prosperous merchant? I suspected well enough the
+answer to that question, and I was not far wrong.
+
+The cook remained inscrutable. I could not fathom the expressions of his
+black frowning face. Although Captain Falk of course had no direct
+communication with him openly, I learned through Bill Hayden that
+indirectly he treated him with tolerant and friendly patronage. It even did
+not surprise me greatly to be told that sometimes he secretly visited the
+galley after dark and actually hobnobbed with black Frank in his own
+quarters. It was almost incredible, to be sure; but so was much else in
+which Captain Falk was implicated, and I could see revealed now in the game
+that he was playing his desire to win and hold the men until they had
+served his ends, whatever those ends might be.
+
+"Yass, sah," black Frank would growl absently as he passed me without a
+glance, "dis am de most appetizin' crew eveh Ah cooked foh. Dey's got no
+mo' bottom to dey innards dan a sponge has. Ah's a-cookin' mah head off to
+feed dat bunch of wuthless man-critters, a-a-a-a-h!" And he would stump to
+the galley with a brimming pail of water in each hand.
+
+I came sadly to conclude that old Frank had found other friends more to his
+taste than the boy in the forecastle, and that Captain Falk, by trickery
+and favoritism, really was securing his grip on the crew. In all his petty
+manoeuvres and childish efforts to please the men and flatter them and make
+them think him a good officer to have over them, he had made up to this
+point only one or two false steps.
+
+Working our way north by west to the Straits of Singapore, and thence on
+into the China Sea, where we expected to take advantage of the last weeks
+of the southwest monsoon, we left far astern the low, feverous shores of
+Sumatra. There were other games than a raid on India to be played for
+money, and the men thought less and less now of the rubies of Burma and the
+gold mohurs and rupees of Calcutta.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+TROUBLE FORWARD
+
+
+In the starboard watch, one fine day when there was neither land nor sail
+in sight, Davie Paine was overseeing the work on the rigging and badly
+botching it. The old fellow was a fair seaman himself, but for all his deep
+voice and big body, his best friend must have acknowledged that as an
+officer he was hopelessly incompetent. "Now unlay the strands so," he would
+say. "No, that ain't right. No, so! No, that ain't right either. Supposing
+you form the eye so. No, that ain't right either."
+
+After a time we were smiling so broadly at his confused orders that we
+caught the captain's eye.
+
+He came forward quickly--say what you would against Captain Falk as an
+officer, no one could deny that he knew his business--and instantly he took
+in the whole unfortunate situation. "Well, _Mister_ Paine," he cried,
+sarcastically stressing the title, "are n't you man enough to unlay a bit
+of rope and make a Flemish eye?"
+
+Old Davie flushed in hopeless embarrassment, and even the men who had been
+chuckling most openly were sorry for him. That the captain had reason to be
+dissatisfied with the second mate's work, we were ready enough to admit;
+but he should have called him aside and rebuked him privately. We all, I
+think, regarded such open interference as unnecessary and unkind.
+
+"Why--y-yes, sir," Davie stammered.
+
+"To make you a Flemish eye," Captain Falk continued in cold sarcasm, "you
+unlay the end of the rope and open up the yarns. Then you half-knot some
+half the inside yarns over that bit of wood you have there, and scrape the
+rest of them down over the others, and marl, parcel, and serve them
+together. That's the way you go to make a Flemish eye. Now then, _Mister_
+Paine, see that you get a smart job done here and keep your eyes open, you
+old lubber. I thought you shipped for able seaman. A fine picture of an
+able seaman you are, you doddering old fool!"
+
+It is impossible to reproduce the meanness with which he gave his little
+lecture, or the patronizing air with which he walked away. Old Davie was
+quite taken aback by it and for a time he could not control his voice
+enough to speak. It was pitiful to see him drop all the pretensions of his
+office and, as if desiring only some friendly word, try to get back on the
+old familiar footing of the forecastle.
+
+"I know I ain't no great shakes of a scholar," he managed to mutter at
+last, "and I ain't no great shakes of a second mate. But he made me second
+mate, he did, and he hadn't ought to shame me in front of all the men, now
+had he? It was him that gave me the berth. If he don't like me in it, now
+why don't he take it away from me? I didn't want to be second mate when he
+made me do it, and I can't read figures good nor nothing. Now why don't he
+send me forrard if he don't like the way I do things?"
+
+The old man ran on in a pathetic monologue, for none of us felt exactly at
+liberty to put in our own oars, and he could find relief only in his
+incoherent talk. It had been a needless and unkind thing and the men almost
+unanimously disapproved of it. Why indeed should Captain Falk not send
+Davie back to the forecastle rather than make his life miserable aft? The
+captain was responsible only to himself for the appointment, and its tenure
+depended only on his own whims; but that, apparently, he had no intention
+of doing.
+
+"'Tain't right," old Blodgett murmured, careful not to let Captain Falk see
+him talking. "He didn't ought to use a man like that."
+
+"No, he didn't," Neddie Benson said in his squeaky voice, turning his face
+so that neither Davie nor Captain Falk should see the motion of his lips.
+"I didn't ought to ship for this voyage, either. The fortune teller--she
+was a lady, she was, a nice lady--she says, 'Neddie, there'll be a dark man
+and a light man and a store of trouble.' She kind of liked me, I think. But
+I up and come. I'm always reckless."
+
+A ripple of low, mild laughter, which only Kipping could have uttered,
+drifted forward, and the men exchanged glances and looked furtively at old
+Davie.
+
+The murmur of disapproval went from mouth to mouth, until for a time I
+dared hope that Captain Falk had quite destroyed the popularity that he had
+tried so hard to win. But, though Davie was grieved by the injustice and
+though the men were angry, they seemed soon to forget it in the excitement
+of that mysterious plot from which Roger and I were virtually the only ones
+excluded.
+
+Nevertheless, like certain other very trivial happenings aboard the Island
+Princess, Captain Falk's unwarrantable insult to Davie Paine--it seems
+incongruous to call him "mister"--was to play its part later in events that
+as yet were only gathering way.
+
+We had not seen much of Kipping for a time, and perhaps it was because he
+had kept so much to himself that to a certain extent we forgot his sly,
+tricky ways. His laugh, mild and insinuating, was enough to call them to
+mind, but we were to have a yet more disagreeable reminder.
+
+All day Bill Hayden had complained of not feeling well and now he leaned
+against the deck-house, looking white and sick. Old Davie would never have
+troubled him, I am sure, but Kipping was built by quite another mould.
+
+Unaware of what was brewing, I turned away, sorry for poor Bill, who seemed
+to be in much pain, and in response to a command from Kipping, I went aloft
+with an "Ay, ay sir," to loose the fore-royal. Having accomplished my
+errand, I was on my way down again, when I heard a sharp sound as of
+slapping.
+
+Startled, I looked at the deck-house. I was aware at the same time that the
+men below me were looking in the same direction.
+
+The sound of slapping was repeated; then I heard a mild, gentle voice
+saying, "Oh, he's sick, is he? Poor fellow! Ain't it hard to be sick away
+from home?" Slap--slap. "Well, I declare, what do you suppose we'd better
+do about it? Shan't we send for the doctor? Poor fellow!" Slap--slap. "Ah!
+ah! ah!" Kipping's voice hardened. "You blinking, bloody old fool. You
+would turn on me, would you? You would give me one, would you? You would
+sojer round the deck and say you're sick, would you? I 'll show you--take
+that--I'll show you!"
+
+Now, as I sprang on deck and ran out where I could see what was going
+forward, I heard Bill's feeble reply. "Don't hit me, sir. I didn't go to do
+nothing. I'm sick. I've got a pain in my innards. I _can't_ work--so help
+me, I _can't_ work."
+
+"Aha!" Again Kipping laughed mildly. "Aha! _Can't_ work, eh? I'll teach you
+a lesson."
+
+Bill staggered against the deck-house and clumsily fell, pressing his hands
+against his side and moaning.
+
+"Hgh!" Kipping grunted. "Hgh!"
+
+At that moment the day flashed upon my memory when I had sat on one side of
+that very corner while Kipping attempted to bully Bill on the other side of
+it--the day when Bill had turned on his tormentor. I now understood some of
+Kipping's veiled references, and a great contempt for the man who would use
+the power and security of his office to revenge himself on a fellow seaman
+who merely had stood up bravely for his rights swept over me. But what
+could I or the others do? Kipping now was mate, and to strike him would be
+open mutiny. Although thus far, in spite of the dislike with which he and
+Captain Falk regarded me, my good behavior and my family connections had
+protected me from abuse, I gladly would have forfeited such security to
+help Bill; but mutiny was quite another affair.
+
+We all stood silent, while Kipping berated Bill with many oaths, though
+poor Bill was so white and miserable that it was almost more than we could
+endure. I, for one, thought of his little girl in Newburyport, and I
+remember that I hoped she might never know of what her loving, stupid old
+father was suffering.
+
+Enraged to fury by nothing more or less than Bill's yielding to his
+attacks, Kipping turned suddenly and reached for the carpenter's mallet,
+which lay where Chips had been working nearby. With a round oath, he
+yelled, "I'll make you grovel and ask me to stop."
+
+Kipping had moved quickly, but old Bill moved more quickly still. Springing
+to his feet like a flash, with a look of anguish on his face such as I hope
+I never shall see again, he warded off a blow of the mallet with his hand
+and, running to the side, scrambled clean over the bulwark into the sea.
+
+We stood there like men in a waxwork for a good minute at the very least;
+and if you think a minute is not a long time, try it with your eyes shut.
+Kipping's angry snarl was frozen on his mean features,--it would have been
+ludicrous if the scene had not been so tragic,--and his outstretched hand
+still held the mallet at the end of the blow. The carpenter's mouth was
+open in amazement. Neddie Benson, the first to move or break the silence,
+had spread his hands as if he were about to clutch at a butterfly or a
+beetle; dropping them to his side, he gasped huskily, "She said there'd be
+a light man and a dark man--I--oh, Lord!"
+
+It was the cook, as black as midnight and as inscrutable as a figurehead,
+who brought us to our senses. Silently observing all that had happened, he
+had stood by the galley, without lifting his hand or changing the
+expression of a single feature; but now, taking his pipe from his mouth, he
+roared, "Man ovehboa'd!" Then, snatching up the carpenter's bench with one
+hand and gathering his great body for the effort, he gave a heave of his
+shoulders and tossed the bench far out on the water.
+
+As if waking from a dream, Mr. Kipping turned aft, smiling scornfully, and
+said with a deliberation that seemed to me criminal, "Put down the helm!"
+
+So carelessly did he speak, that the man at the wheel did not hear him, and
+he was obliged to repeat the order a little more loudly. "Didn't you hear
+me? I say, put down the helm."
+
+"Put down the helm, sir," came the reply; and the ship began to head up in
+the wind.
+
+At this moment Captain Falk, having heard the cook's shout, appeared on
+deck, breathing hard, and took command. However little I liked Captain
+Falk, I must confess in justice to him that he did all any man could have
+done under the circumstances. While two or three hands cleared away a
+quarter-boat, we hauled up the mainsail, braced the after yards and raised
+the head sheets, so that the ship, with her main yards aback, drifted down
+in the general direction in which we thought Bill must be.
+
+Not a man of us expected ever to see Bill again. He had flung himself
+overboard so suddenly, and so much time had elapsed, that there seemed to
+be no chance of his keeping himself afloat. I saw that the smile actually
+still hovered on Kipping's mean, mild mouth. But all at once the cook, near
+whom I was standing, grasped my arm and muttered almost inaudibly, "If dey
+was to look behine, dey'd get ahead, yass, sah."
+
+Taking his hint, I looked astern and cried out loudly. Something was
+bobbing at the end of the log line. It was Bill clinging desperately.
+
+When we got him on board, he was nearer dead than alive, and even the stiff
+drink that the captain poured between his blue lips did not really revive
+him. He moaned continually and now and then he cried out in pain.
+Occasionally, too, he tried to tell us about his little girl at
+Newburyport, and rambled on about how he had married late in life and had a
+good wife and a comfortable home, and before long, God willing, he would be
+back with them once more and would never sail the seas again. It was all so
+natural and homely that I didn't realize at the time that Bill was
+delirious; but when I helped the men carry him below, I was startled to
+find his face so hot, and presently it came over me that he did not
+recognize me.
+
+Poor old stupid Bill! He meant so well, and he wished so well for all of
+us! It was hard that he should be the one who could not keep out of harm's
+way.
+
+But there were other things to think of, more important even than the fate
+of Bill Hayden, and one of them was an extraordinary interview with the
+cook.
+
+I heard laughter in the galley that night, and lingered near as long as I
+dared, with a boy's jealous desire to learn who was enjoying the cook's
+hospitality. By his voice I soon knew that it was the steward, and
+remembering how black Frank once was ready to deceive him for the sake of
+giving me a piece of pie, I was more disconsolate than ever. After a while
+I saw him leave, but I thought little of that. I still had two more hours
+to stand watch, so I paced along in the darkness, listening to the sound of
+the waves and watching the bright stars.
+
+When presently I again passed the galley I thought I heard a suspicious
+sound there. Later I saw something move by the door. But neither time did I
+go nearer. I had no desire for further rebuffs from the old negro.
+
+When I passed a third time, at a distance of only a foot or two, I was
+badly startled. A long black arm reached out from the apparently closed
+door; a black hand grasped me, lifted me bodily from the floor, and
+silently drew me into the galley, which was as dark as Egypt. I heard the
+cook close the door behind me and bolt it and cover the deadlight with a
+tin pan. What he was up to, I had not the remotest idea; but when he had
+barricaded and sealed every crack and cranny, he lighted a candle and set
+it on a saucer and glared at me ferociously.
+
+"Mind you, boy," he said in a very low voice, "don't you think Ah'm any
+friend of yo's. No, sah. Don't you think Ah'm doing nothin' foh you. No,
+sah. 'Cause Ah ain't. No, sah. Ah'm gwine make a fo'tune dis yeh trip, Ah
+am. Yass, sah. Dis yeh nigger's gwine go home putty darn well off. Yass,
+sah. So don't you think dis yeh nigger's gwine do nothin' foh you. No,
+sah."
+
+For a moment I was completely bewildered; then, as I recalled the darky's
+crafty and indirect ways, my confidence returned and I had the keenest
+curiosity to see what would be forthcoming.
+
+"Boys, dey's a pest," he grumbled. "Dey didn't had ought to have boys
+aboa'd ship. No, sah. Cap'n Falk, he say so, too."
+
+The negro was looking at me so intently that I searched his words for some
+hidden meaning; but I could find none.
+
+"No, sah, boys am de mos' discombobulationest eveh was nohow. Yass, sah.
+Dey's been su'thin' happen aft. Yass, sah. Ah ain't gwine tell no boy,
+nohow. No, sah. 'Taint dis nigger would go tell a boy dat Mistah Hamlin he
+have a riot with Mistah Cap'n Falk, no sah. Ah ain't gwine tell no boy dat
+Mistah Hamlin, he say dat Mistah Cap'n Falk he ain't holdin' to de right
+co'se, no, sah; nor dat Mistah Cap'n Falk he bristle up like a guinea
+gander and he say, while he's swearin' most amazin', dat he know what co'se
+he's sailin', no, sah. Ah ain't gwine tell no boy dat Mistah Hamlin, he say
+he am supercargo, an' dat he reckon he got orders f'om de owners; and
+Mistah Cap'n Falk, he say he am cap'n and he cuss su'thin' awful 'bout dem
+orders; and Mistah Roger Hamlin he say Mistah Cap'n Falk his clock am a
+hour wrong and no wonder Mistah Kipping am writing in de log-book dat de
+ship am whar she ain't; and Mistah Kipping he swear dre'ful pious and he
+say by golly he am writer of dat log-book and he reckon he know what's what
+ain't. No, sah, Ah ain't gwine tell a boy dem things 'cause Ah tell stew'd
+Ah ain't, an' stew'd, him an' me is great friends, what's gwine make a
+fo'tune _when Mistah Cap'n Falk git dat money_!"
+
+He said those last words in a whisper, and stared at me intently; in that
+same whisper, he repeated them, "When Mistah Cap'n Falk git dat money_!"
+
+Then, in a strangely meditative way, as if an unfamiliar process of thought
+suddenly occupied all his attention, he muttered absently, letting his eyes
+fall, "Seem like Ah done see dat Kipping befo'; Ah jes' can't put mah
+finger on him." It was the second time that he had made such a remark in my
+hearing.
+
+The candle guttered in the saucer that served for a candlestick, and its
+crazy, wavering light shone unsteadily on the black face of the cook, who
+continued to stare at me grimly and apparently in anger. A pan rattled as
+the ship rolled. Water splashed from a bucket. I watched the drops falling
+from the shelf. One--two--three--four--five--six--seven! Each with its
+_pht_, its little splash. They continued to drip interminably. I lost all
+count of them. And still the black face, motionless except for the wildly
+rolling eyes, stared at me across the galley stove.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+BILL HAYDEN COMES TO THE END OF HIS VOYAGE
+
+
+I was ejected from the galley as abruptly and strangely as I had been drawn
+into it. The candle went out at a breath from the great round lips; the big
+hand again closed on my shoulder and lifted me bodily from my chair. The
+door opened and shut, and there was I, dazed by my strange experience and
+bewildered by the story I had heard, outside on the identical spot from
+which I had been snatched ten minutes before.
+
+In my ears the negro's parting message still sounded, "Dis nigger wouldn't
+tell a boy one word, no sah, not dis nigger. If he was to tell a boy jest
+one leetle word, dat boy, he might lay hisself out ready foh a fight. Yass,
+sah."
+
+For a long time I puzzled over the whole extraordinary experience. It was
+so like a dream, that only the numbness of my arm where the negro's great
+fist had gripped it convinced me that the happenings of the night were
+real. But as I pondered, I found more and more significance in the cook's
+incoherent remarks, and became more and more convinced that their
+incoherence was entirely artful. Obviously, first of all, he was trying to
+pacify his conscience, which troubled him for breaking the promise of
+secrecy that he probably had given the steward, from whom he must have
+learned the things at which he had hinted. Also he had established for
+himself an alibi of a kind, if ever he should be accused of tattling about
+affairs in the cabin.
+
+That Captain Falk had promised to divide the money among the crew, I long
+had suspected; consequently that part of the cook's revelations did not
+surprise me. But the picture he gave of affairs in the cabin, disconnected
+though it was, caused me grave concern. After all, what could Roger do to
+preserve the owners' property or to carry out their orders? Captain Falk
+had all the men on his side, except me and perhaps poor old Bill Hayden.
+Indeed, I feared for Roger's own safety if he had detected that rascally
+pair in falsifying the log; he then would be a dangerous man when we all
+went back to Salem together. I stopped as if struck: what assurance had I
+that we should go back to Salem together--or singly, for that matter? There
+was no assurance whatever, that all, or any one of us, would ever go back
+to Salem. If they wished to make way with Roger, and with me too, for that
+matter, the green tropical seas would keep the secret until the end of
+time.
+
+I am not ashamed that I frankly was white with fear of what the future
+might bring. You can forgive in a boy weaknesses of which a man grown might
+have been guilty. But as I watched the phosphorescent sea and the stars
+from which I tried to read our course, I gradually overcame the terror that
+had seized me. I think that remembering my father and mother, and my
+sister, for whom I suspected that Roger cared more than I, perhaps, could
+fully realize, helped to compose me; and I am sure that the thought of the
+Roger I had known so long,--cool,  bold, resourceful, with that twinkle in
+his steady eyes--did much to renew my courage. When eight bells struck and
+some one called down the hatch, "Larbowlines ahoy," and the dim figures of
+the new watch appeared on deck, and we of the old watch went below, I was
+fairly ready to face whatever the next hours might bring.
+
+"Roger and I against them all," I thought, feeling very much a martyr,
+"unless," I mentally added, "Bill Hayden joins us." At that I actually
+laughed, so that Blodgett, prowling restlessly in the darkness, asked me
+crossly what was the matter. I should have been amazed and incredulous if
+anyone had told me that poor Bill Hayden was to play the deciding part in
+our affairs.
+
+He lay now in his bunk, tossing restlessly and muttering once in a while to
+himself. When I went over and asked if there was anything that I could do
+for him, he raised himself on his elbow and stared at me more stupidly than
+ever. It seemed to come to him slowly who I was. After a while he made out
+my face by the light of the dim, swinging lantern, and thanked me, and said
+if I would be so good as to give him a drink of water--He never completed
+the sentence; but I brought him a drink carefully, and when he had finished
+it, he thanked me again and leaned wearily back.
+
+His face seemed dark by the lantern-light, and I judged that it was still
+flushed. Muttering something about a "pain in his innards," he apparently
+went to sleep, and I climbed into my own bunk. The lantern swung more and
+more irregularly, and Bill tossed with ever-increasing uneasiness. When at
+last I dozed off, my own sleep was fitful, and shortly I woke with a start.
+
+Others, too, had waked, and I heard questions flung back and forth:--
+
+"Who was that yelled?"
+
+"Did you hear that? Tell me, did you hear it?"
+
+Some one spoke of ghosts,--none of us laughed,--and Neddie Benson whimpered
+something about the lady who told fortunes. "She said the light man and the
+dark man would make no end o' trouble," he cried; "and he--"
+
+"Keep still," another voice exclaimed angrily. "It was Bill Hayden," the
+voice continued. "He hollered."
+
+Getting out of my bunk, I crossed the forecastle. "Bill," I said, "are you
+all right?"
+
+He started up wildly. "Don't hit me!" he cried. "That wasn't what I said--
+it--I don't remember _just_ what I said, because I ain't good at
+remembering, but it wasn't that--don't-oh! oh!--I _know_ it wasn't that."
+
+Two of the men joined me, moving cautiously for the ship was pitching now
+in short, heavy seas.
+
+"What's that he's saying?" one of them asked.
+
+Before I could answer, Bill seemed suddenly to get control of himself.
+"Oh," he moaned. "I've got such a pain in my innards! I've got a rolling,
+howling old pain in my innards."
+
+There was little that we could do, so we smoothed his blankets and went
+back to our own. The Island Princess was pitching more fiercely than ever
+now, and while I watched the lantern swing and toss before I went to sleep,
+I heard old Blodgett saying something about squalls and cross seas. There
+was not much rest for us that night. No sooner had I hauled the blankets to
+my chin and closed my eyes, than a shout came faintly down to us,
+"All-hands--on deck!"
+
+Some one called, "Ay, ay," and we rolled out again wearily--all except Bill
+Hayden whose fitful tossing seemed to have settled at last into deep sleep.
+
+Coming on deck, we found the ship scudding under close-reefed maintopsail
+and reefed foresail, with the wind on her larboard quarter. A heavy sea
+having blown up, all signs indicated that a bad night was before us; and
+just as we emerged from the hatch, she came about suddenly, which brought
+the wind on the starboard quarter and laid all aback.
+
+In the darkness and rain and wind, we sprang to the ropes. Mr. Kipping was
+forward at his post on the forecastle and Captain Falk was on the
+quarter-deck. As the man at the wheel put the helm hard-a-starboard, we
+raised the fore tack and sheet, filled the foresail and shivered the
+mainsail, thus bringing the wind aft again, where we met her with the helm
+and trimmed the yards for her course. For the moment we were safe, but
+already it was blowing a gale, and shortly we lay to, close-reefed, under
+what sails we were carrying.
+
+In a lull I heard Blodgett, who was pulling at the ropes by my side, say to
+a man just beyond him, "Ay, it's a good thing for _us_ that Captain Falk
+got command. We'd never make our bloody fortunes under the old officers."
+
+As the wind came again and drowned whatever else may have been said, I
+thought to myself that they never would have. Plainly, Captain Falk and
+Kipping had won over the simple-minded crew, which was ready to follow them
+with never a thought of the chance that that precious pair might run off
+with the spoils themselves and leave the others in the lurch.
+
+But now Kipping's indescribably disagreeable voice, which we all by this
+time knew so well, asked, "Has anybody seen that sojering old lubber,
+Hayden?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," Blodgett replied. "He's below sick."
+
+"Sick?" said the mild voice. "Sick is he? Supposing Blodgett, you go below
+and bring him on deck. He ain't sick, he's sojering."
+
+"But, sir,--" Blodgett began.
+
+"But what?" roared Kipping. His mildness changed to fierceness. "_You go_!"
+He snapped out the words, and Blodgett went.
+
+Poor stupid old Bill!
+
+When he appeared, Blodgett had him by the arm to help him.
+
+"You sojering, bloody fool," Kipping cried; "do you think I'm so blind I
+can't see through such tricks as yours?"
+
+A murmur of remonstrance came from the men, but Kipping paid no attention
+to it.
+
+"You think, do you, that I ain't on to your slick tricks? Take that."
+
+Bill never flinched.
+
+"So!" Kipping muttered. "So! Bring him aft."
+
+Though heavy seas had blown up, the squalls had subsided, and some of the
+men, for the moment unoccupied, trailed at a cautious distance after the
+luckless Bill. We could not hear what those on the quarterdeck said; but
+Blodgett, who stood beside me and stared into the darkness with eyes that I
+was convinced could see by night, cried suddenly, "He's fallen!"
+
+Then Captain Falk called, "Come here, two or three of you, and take this
+man below."
+
+Old Bill was moaning when we got there. "Sure," he groaned, "I've got a
+rolling--howling--old Barney's bull of a pain in my innards." But when we
+laid him in his bunk, he began to laugh queerly, and he seemed to pretend
+that he was talking to his little wee girl; for we heard him saying that
+her old father had come to her and that he was never going to leave her
+again.
+
+To me--only a boy, you must remember--it was a horrible experience, even
+though I did not completely understand all that was happening; and to the
+others old Bill's rambling talk seemed to bring an unnamed terror.
+
+All night he restlessly tossed, though he soon ceased his wild talking and
+slept lightly and fitfully. The men watching him were wakeful, too, and as
+I lay trying to sleep and trying not to see the swaying lantern and the
+fantastic shadows, I heard at intervals snatches of their low conversation.
+
+"They hadn't ought to 'a' called him out. It warn't human. A sick man has
+got _some_ rights," one of the men from Boston repeated interminably. He
+seemed unable to hold more than one idea at a time.
+
+Then Blodgett would say, "Ay, it don't seem right. But we've all got to
+stand by the skipper. That's how we'll serve our ends best. It don't do to
+get too much excited."
+
+I imagined that Blodgett's voice did not sound as if he were fully
+convinced of the doctrine he was preaching.
+
+"Ay," the other would return, "but they hadn't ought to 'a' called him out.
+It warn't human. A sick man has got _some_ rights, and he was allers
+quiet."
+
+They talked on endlessly, while I tried in vain to sleep and while poor
+Bill tossed away, getting no good from the troubled slumber that the Lord
+sent him.
+
+No sooner, it seemed to me, did I actually close my eyes than I woke and
+heard him moaning, "Water--a--drink--of--water."
+
+The others by then had left him, so I got up and fetched water, and he
+muttered something more about the "pain in his innards." Then my watch was
+called and I went on deck with the rest.
+
+For the most part it was a day of coarse weather. Now intermittent squalls
+from the southwest swept upon us with lightning and thunder, driving before
+them rain in solid sheets; now the ship danced in choppy waves, with barely
+enough wind to give her steerage-way and with a warm, gentle drizzle that
+wet us to the skin and penetrated into the forecastle, where blankets and
+clothing soon became soggy and uncomfortable. But the greater part of the
+time we lurched along in a gale of wind, with an occasional dash of rain,
+which we accepted as a compromise between those two worse alternatives, the
+cloudbursts that accompanied the squalls, and the enervating warm drizzle.
+
+That Bill Hayden did not stand watch with the others, no one, apparently,
+noticed. The men were glad enough to forget him, I think, and the officers
+let his absence pass, except Davie Paine, who found opportunity to inquire
+of me secretly about him and sadly shook his gray head at the tidings I
+gave.
+
+Below we could not forget him. I heard the larboard watch talking of it
+when they relieved us; and no sooner had we gone below in turn than
+Blodgett cried, "Look at old Bill! His face is all of a sweat."
+
+He was up on his elbow when we came down, staring as if he had expected
+some one; and when he saw who it was, he kept his eyes on the hatch as if
+waiting for still another to come. Presently he fell back in his bunk. "Oh,
+I've got such a pain in my innards," he moaned.
+
+By and by he began to talk again, but he seemed to have forgotten his pain
+completely, for he talked about doughnuts and duff, and Sundays ashore when
+he was a little shaver, and going to church, and about the tiny wee girl on
+the bank of the Merrimac who would be looking for her dad to come home, and
+lots of things that no one would have thought he knew. He seemed so natural
+now and so cheerful that I was much relieved about him, and I whispered to
+Blodgett that I thought Bill was better. But Blodgett shook his head so
+gravely that I was frightened in spite of my hopes, and we lay there, some
+of us awake, some asleep, while Bill rambled cheerily on and the lantern
+swung with the motion of the ship.
+
+To-day I remember those watches below at
+that time in the voyage as a succession of short unrestful snatches of
+sleep broken by vivid pictures of the most trivial things--the swinging
+lantern, the distorted shadows the muttered comments of the men, Bill
+leaning on his elbow at the edge of his bunk and staring toward the hatch
+as if some one long expected were just about to come. I do not pretend to
+understand the reason, but in my experience it is the trifling unimportant
+things that after a time of stress or tragedy are most clearly remembered.
+
+When next I woke I heard the bell--_clang-clang, clang-clang, clang-clang,
+clang_--faint and far off. Then I saw that Blodgett was sitting on the edge
+of his bunk, counting the strokes on his fingers. When he had finished he
+gravely shook his head and nodded toward Bill who was breathing harder now.
+"He's far gone," Blodgett whispered. "He ain't going to share in no
+split-up at Manila. He ain't going to put back again to India when we've
+got rid of the cargo. His time's come."
+
+I didn't believe a word that Blodgett said then, but I sat beside him as
+still as the grave while the forecastle lantern nodded and swung as
+casually as if old Bill were not, for all we knew, dying. By and by we
+heard the bell again, and some one called from the hatch, "Eight bells!
+Roll out!"
+
+The very monotony of our life--the watches below and on deck, each like
+every other, marked off by the faint clanging of the ship's bell--made
+Bill's sickness seem less dreadful. There is little to thrill a lad or
+even, after a time, to interest him, in the interminable routine of a long
+voyage.
+
+When we came on deck Davie Paine looked us over and said, "Where's Bill?"
+
+Blodgett shook his head. Even this simple motion had a sleepy quality that
+made me think of a cat.
+
+"I'm afraid, sir," he replied, "that Bill has stood his last watch."
+
+"So!" said old Davie, reflectively, in his deep voice, "so!--I was afraid
+of that." Ignorant though Davie was, and hopelessly incompetent as an
+officer, he had a certain kindly tolerance, increased, perhaps, by his own
+recent difficulties, that made him more approachable than any other man in
+the cabin. After a time he added, "I cal'ate I got to tell the captain."
+Davie's manner implied that he was taking us into his confidence.
+
+"Yes," Neddie Benson muttered under his breath, "tell the captain! If it
+wasn't for Mr. Kipping and the captain, Bill would be as able a man this
+minute as any one of us here. It didn't do to abuse him. He ain't got the
+spirit to stand up under it."
+
+Davie shuffled away without hearing what was said, and soon, instead of
+Captain Falk, Mr. Kipping appeared, bristling with anger.
+
+"What's all this?" he snapped, with none of the mildness that he usually
+affected. "Who says Bill Hayden has stood his last watch? Is mutiny
+brewing? I'll have you know I'm mate here, legal and lawful, and what's
+more I'll show you I'm mate in a way that none of you won't forget if he
+thinks he can try any more of his sojering on me. I'll fix him. You go
+forward, Blodgett, and drag him out by the scalp-lock."
+
+Blodgett walked off, keeping close to the bulwark, and five minutes later
+he was back again.
+
+Mr. Kipping grew very red. "Well, my man," he said in a way that made my
+skin creep, "are you a party to this little mutiny?"
+
+"N-no, sir," Blodgett stammered. "I--he-it ain't no use, he _can't_ come."
+
+The mate looked sternly at Blodgett, and I thought he was going to hit
+him; but instead, after a moment of hesitation, he started forward alone.
+
+We scarcely believed our eyes.
+
+By and by he came back again, but to us he said nothing. He went into the
+cabin, and when next we saw him Captain Falk was by his side.
+
+"I don't like the looks of it," Kipping was saying, "I don't at all."
+
+As the captain passed me he called, "Lathrop, go to the galley and get a
+bucket of hot water."
+
+Running to the deck-house, I thrust my head into the galley and made known
+my want with so little ceremony that the cook was exasperated. Or so at
+least his manner intimated.
+
+"You boy," he roared in a voice that easily carried to where the others
+stood and grinned at my discomfiture, "you boy, what foh you come
+promulgatin' in on me with 'gimme dis' and 'gimme dat' like Ah wahn't ol'
+enough to be yo' pa? Ain't you got no manners nohow? You vex me, yass, sah,
+you vex me. If we gotta have a boy on boa'd ship, why don' dey keep him out
+of de galley?"
+
+Then with a change of voice that startled me, he demanded in an undertone
+that must have been inaudible a dozen feet away, "Have things broke? Is de
+fight on? Has de row started?"
+
+Bewildered, I replied, "Why, no--it's only Bill Hayden."
+
+Instantly he resumed his loud and abusive tone. "Well, if dey gwine send a
+boy heah foh wateh, wateh he's gotta have. Heah, you wuthless boy, git! Git
+out of heah!"
+
+Filling a bucket with boiling water, he thrust it into my hand and shoved
+me half across the deck so roughly that I narrowly escaped scalding myself,
+then returned to his work, muttering imprecations on the whole race of
+boys. He was too much of a strategist for me.
+
+When I took the bucket to the forecastle, I found the captain and Mr.
+Kipping looking at poor old Bill.
+
+"Dip a cloth in the water," the captain said carelessly, "and pull his
+clothes off and lay the cloth on where it hurts."
+
+I obeyed as well as I could, letting the cloth cool a bit first; and
+although Bill cried out sharply when it touched his skin, the heat eased
+him of pain, and by and by he opened his eyes for all the world as if he
+had been asleep and looked at Captain Falk and said in a scared voice, "In
+heaven's name, what's happened?"
+
+The captain and Mr. Kipping laughed coldly. It seemed to me that they
+didn't care whether he lived or died.
+
+Certainly the men of the larboard watch, who were lying in their bunks at
+the time, didn't like the way the two behaved. I caught the word
+"heartless" twice repeated.
+
+"Well," said Captain Falk at last, "either he'll live or he'll not. How
+about it, Mr. Kipping?"
+
+The mate laughed as if he had heard a good joke. "That's one of the truest
+things ever was said aboard a ship," he replied, in his slow, insincere
+way. "Yes, sir, it hits the nail on the head going up and coming down."
+
+"Well, then, let's leave him to make up his mind."
+
+So the two went aft together as if they had done a good day's work. But
+there was a buzz of disapproval in the forecastle when they had gone, and
+one of the men from Boston, of whom I hitherto had had a very poor opinion,
+actually got out of his blankets and came over to help me minister to poor
+Bill's needs.
+
+"It ain't right," he said dipping the cloth in the hot water; "they never
+so much as gave him a dose of medicine. A man may be only a sailor, but
+he's worth a dose of medicine. There never come no good of denying poor
+Jack his pill when he's sick."
+
+"Ay, heartless!" one of the others exclaimed. _"I could tell things if I
+would."_
+
+That remark, I ask you to remember. The man who made it, the other of the
+two from Boston, had black hair and a black beard, and a nose that
+protruded in a big hook where he had broken it years before. It was easy to
+recognize his profile a long way off because of the peculiar shape of the
+nose. The remark itself is of little importance, of course; but a story is
+made up of things that seem to be of little importance, yet really are more
+significant by far than matters that for the moment are startling.
+
+It was touching to see the solicitude of the men and the clumsy kindness of
+their efforts to help poor Bill when the captain and the mate had left him.
+They crowded up to his bunk and smoothed out his blankets and spoke to him
+more gently than I should have believed possible. So angry were they at the
+brutality of the two officers, that the coldest and hardest of them all
+gave the sick man a muttered word of sympathy or an awkward helping hand.
+
+We worked over him, easing him as best we could, while the bell struck the
+half hours and the hours; and for a while he seemed more comfortable. In a
+moment of sanity he looked up at me with a sad smile and said, "I wish,
+lad, I surely wish I could do something for _you_." But long before the
+watch was over he once more began to talk about the tiny wee girl at
+Newburyport--"Cute she is as they make 'em," he reiterated weakly,
+"a-waiting for her dad to come home." And by and by he spoke of his wife,
+--"a good wife," he called her,--and then he made a little noise in his
+throat and lay for a long time without moving.
+
+"He's dead," the man from Boston said at last; there was no sound in the
+forecastle except the rattle of the swinging lantern and the chug-chug of
+waves.
+
+I was younger than the others and more sensitive, so I went on deck and
+leaned on the bulwark, looking at the ocean and seeing nothing.
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+IN WHICH THE TIDE OF OUR FORTUNES EBBS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MR. FALK TRIES TO COVER HIS TRACKS
+
+
+How long I leaned on the bulwark I do not know; I had no sense of passing
+time. But after a while some one told me that the captain wished to see me
+in the cabin, and I went aft with other tragic memories in mind. I had not
+entered the cabin since Captain Whidden died--"_shot f'om behine_." The
+negro's phrase now flashed upon my memory and rang over and over again in
+my ears.
+
+The cabin itself was much as it had been that other day: I suppose no
+article of its furnishings had been changed. But when I saw Captain Falk in
+the place of Captain Whidden and Kipping in the place of Mr. Thomas, I felt
+sick at heart. All that encouraged me was the sight of Roger Hamlin, and I
+suspected that he attended uninvited, for he came into the cabin from his
+stateroom at the same moment when I came down the companionway, and there
+was no twinkle now in his steady eyes.
+
+Captain Falk glanced at him sharply. "Well, sir?" he exclaimed testily.
+
+"I have decided to join you, sir," Roger said, and calmly seated himself.
+
+For a moment Falk hesitated, then, obviously unwilling, he assented with a
+grimace.
+
+"Lathrop," he said, turning to me, "you were present when Hayden died, and
+also you had helped care for him previously. Mr. Kipping has written a
+statement of the circumstances in the log and you are to sign it, Here's
+the place for your name. Here's a pen and ink. Be careful not to blot or
+smudge it."
+
+He pushed the big, canvas-covered book over to me and placed his finger on
+a vacant line. All that preceded it was covered with paper.
+
+"Of course," said Roger, coldly, "Lathrop will read the statement before
+signing it." He was looking the captain squarely in the eye.
+
+Falk scowled as he replied, "I consider that quite unnecessary."
+
+"A great many of the ordinary decencies of life seem to be considered
+unnecessary aboard this ship."
+
+"If you are making any insinuations at me, Mr. Hamlin, I'll show you who's
+captain here."
+
+"You needn't. You've done it sufficiently already. Anyhow, if Lathrop were
+foolish enough to sign the statement without reading it, I should know that
+he hadn't read it and I assure you that it wouldn't pass muster in any
+court of law."
+
+As Captain Falk was about to retort even more angrily, Kipping touched his
+arm and whispered to him.
+
+"Oh, well," he said with ill grace, "as you wish, Mr. Kipping. There's
+nothing underhanded about this. Of course the account is absolutely true
+and the whole world could read it; only I don't intend a silly young fop
+shall think he can bully me on my own ship. Show Lathrop the statement."
+
+Kipping withdrew the paper and I began to read what was written in the log,
+but Roger now interrupted again.
+
+"Read it aloud," he said.
+
+"What in heaven's name do you think you are, you young fool? If you think
+you can bully Nathan Falk like that, I'll lash you to skin and pulp."
+
+"Oh, well," said Roger comically, in imitation of the captain's own air of
+concession, "since you feel so warmly on the subject, I'm quite willing to
+yield the point. It's enough that Lathrop should read it before he signs."
+Then, turning to me suddenly, he cried, "Ben, what's the course according
+to the log?"
+
+The angry red of Captain Talk's face deepened, but before he could speak, I
+had seen and repeated it:--
+
+"Northeast by north."
+
+Roger smiled. "Go on," he said. "Read the statement."
+
+The statement was straightforward enough for the most part--more
+straightforward, it seemed to me, than either of the two men who probably
+had collaborated in writing it; but one sentence caught my attention and I
+hesitated.
+
+"Well," said Roger who was watching me closely, "is anything wrong?"
+
+"Why, perhaps not exactly wrong," I replied, "though I do think most of the
+men forward would deny it."
+
+"See here," cried Captain Falk, cutting off Kipping, who tried to speak at
+the same moment, "I tell you, Mr. Hamlin, if you thrust your oar in here
+again I'll thrash you within an inch of your life! I'll keelhaul you, so
+help me! I'll--" He wrinkled up his nose and twisted his lips into a sneer
+before he added, almost in a whisper, "I'll do worse than that."
+
+"No," said Roger calmly, "I don't think you will. What's the sentence,
+Benny?"
+
+Without waiting for another word from anyone I read aloud as follows:--
+
+"'And the captain and the chief mate tended Hayden carefully and did what
+they might to make his last hours comfortable.'"
+
+"Well," said Falk, "didn't we?"
+
+"No, by heaven, you didn't," Roger cried suddenly, taking the floor from
+me. "I know how you beat Hayden. I know how you two drove him to throw
+himself overboard. You're a precious pair! And what's more, all the men
+forward know it. While we're about it, Captain Falk, here's something else
+I know. According to the log, which you consistently have refused to let me
+see the course is northeast by north. According to the men at the wheel,--I
+will not be still! I will not close my mouth! If you assault me, sir, I
+will break your shallow head,--according to the men at the wheel, of whom I
+have inquired, according to the ship's compass when I've taken a chance to
+look at it, according to the tell-tale that you yourself can see at this
+very minute and--" Roger laid on the table a little box of hard wood bound
+with brass--"according to this compass of my own, which I know is a good
+one, our course is now and has been for two days east-northeast. Captain
+Falk, do you think you can make us believe that Manila is Canton?"
+
+"It may be that I do, and it may be that I do not," Falk retorted hotly.
+"As for you, Mr. Hamlin, I'll attend to your case later. Now sign that
+statement, Lathrop."
+
+Falk was standing. His hands, a moment before lifted for a blow, rested on
+the table; but the knuckles were streaked with red along the creases, and
+the nails of his fingers, which were bent under, he had pressed hard
+against the dull mahogany. When he had finished speaking, he sat down
+heavily.
+
+"Sign it, Ben," said Roger; "but first draw your pen through that
+particular sentence."
+
+Quick as thought I did what Roger told me, leaving a single broad line
+through the words "and did what they might to make his last hours
+comfortable"; then I wrote my name and laid the pen on the table.
+
+[Illustration: "Sign that statement, Lathrop," said Captain Falk.]
+
+Leaning over to see what I had done, Falk leaped up white with passion.
+"Good God!" he yelled, "that's worse than nothing."
+
+"Yes," said Roger coolly, "I think it is."
+
+"What--" Falk stopped suddenly. Kipping had touched his sleeve. "Well?"
+
+Kipping whispered to him.
+
+"No," Falk snarled, glancing at me, "I'm going to take that young pup's
+hide off his back and salt it."
+
+Again Kipping whispered to him.
+
+This time he seemed half persuaded. He was a weak man, even in his
+passions. "All right," he said, after reflecting briefly. "As you say, it
+don't make so much odds. Myself, I'm for slitting the young pup's ears--but
+later on, later on. And though I'd like to straighten out the record as far
+as it goes--Well, as you say."
+
+For all of Captain Falk's bluster and pretension, I was becoming more and
+more aware that the subtle Kipping could twist him around his little
+finger, and that for some end of his own Kipping did not wish affairs to
+come yet to a head.
+
+He leaned back in his chair, twirling his thumbs behind his interlocked
+fingers, and smiled at us mildly. His whole bearing was odious. He fairly
+exhaled hypocrisy. I remembered a dozen episodes of his career aboard the
+Island Princess--the wink he had given Captain Falk, then second mate; his
+coming to the cook's galley for part of my pie; his bullying poor old Bill
+Hayden; his cold selfishness in taking the best meat from the kids, and
+many other offensive incidents. Was it possible that Captain Falk was not
+at the bottom of all our troubles? that Captain Falk had been from the
+first only somebody's tool?
+
+We left the cabin in single file, the captain first, Kipping second, then
+Roger, then I.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A PRAYER FOR THE DEAD
+
+
+In the last few hours we had sighted an island, which lay now off the
+starboard bow; and as I had had no opportunity hitherto to observe it
+closely, I regarded it with much interest when I came on deck. Inland there
+were several cone-shaped mountains thickly wooded about the base; to the
+south the shore was low and apparently marshy; to the north a bold and
+rugged promontory extended. Along the shore and for some distance beyond it
+there were open spaces that might have been great tracts of cleared land;
+and a report prevailed among the men that a fishing boat had been sighted
+far off, which seemed to put back incontinently to the shore. Otherwise
+there was no sign of human habitation, but we knew the character of the
+natives of such islands thereabouts too well to approach land with any
+sense of security.
+
+Captain Falk and Kipping were deep in consultation, and the rest were
+intent upon the sad duty that awaited us. On the deck there lay now a shape
+sewed in canvas. The men, glancing occasionally at the captain, stood a
+little way off, bare-headed and ill at ease, and conversed in whispers. For
+the moment I had forgotten that we were to do honor for the last time--and,
+I fear me, for the first--to poor Bill Hayden. Poor, stupid Bill! He had
+meant so well by us all, and life had dealt so hardly with him! Even in
+death he was neglected.
+
+As time passed, the island became gradually clearer, so that now we could
+see its mountains more distinctly and pick out each separate peak. Although
+the wind was light and unsteady, we were making fair progress; but Captain
+Falk and Mr. Kipping remained intent on their conference.
+
+I could see that Roger Hamlin, who was leaning on the taffrail, was
+imperturbable; but Davie Paine grew nervous and walked back and forth,
+looking now and then at the still shape in canvas, and the men began to
+murmur among themselves.
+
+"Well," said the captain at last, "what does all this mean, Mr. Paine? What
+in thunder do you mean by letting the men stand around like this?"
+
+He knew well enough what it meant, though, for all his bluster. If he had
+not, he would have been ranting up the deck the instant he laid eyes on
+that scene of idleness such as no competent officer could countenance.
+
+Old Davie, who was as confused as the captain had intended that he should
+be, stammered a while and finally managed to say, "If you please, sir, Bill
+Hayden's dead."
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "it looks like he's dead."
+
+We all heard him and more than one of us breathed hard with anger.
+
+"Well, why don't you heave him over and be done with it?" he asked shortly,
+and turned away.
+
+
+The men exchanged glances.
+
+
+"If you please, sir,--" it was Davie, and a different Davie from the one we
+had known before,--"if you please, sir, ain't you goin' to read the service
+and say the words?"
+
+I turned and stared at Davie in amazement. His voice was sharper now than
+ever I had heard it and there was a challenge in his eyes as well.
+
+"What?" Falk snapped out angrily.
+
+"Ain't you goin' to read the Bible and say the words, sir?"
+
+I am convinced that up to this point Captain Falk had intended, after
+badgering Davie enough to suit his own unkind humor, to read the service
+with all the solemnity that the occasion demanded. He was too eager for
+every prerogative of his office to think of doing otherwise. But his was
+the way of a weak man; at Davie's challenge he instantly made up his mind
+not to do what was desired, and having set himself on record thus, his
+mulish obstinacy held him to his decision in spite of whatever better
+judgment he may have had.
+
+"Not I!" he cried. "Toss him over to suit yourself."
+
+When an angry murmur rose on every side, he faced about again. "Well," he
+said, "what do you want, anyway? I'm captain here, and if you wish I'll
+_show_ you I'm captain here. I'll read the service or I'll not read it,
+just as I please. If any man here's got anything to say about it, I'll do
+some saying myself. If any man here wants to read the service over that
+lump of clay, let him read it." Then, turning with an air of indifference,
+he leaned on the rail with a sneer, and smiled at Kipping.
+
+What would have happened next I do not know, so angry were the men at this
+wretched exhibition on the part of the captain, if Roger had not stepped
+forward.
+
+"Very well, sir," he said facing the captain, "since you put it that way,
+_I'll read the service_." And without ceremony he took from the captain's
+hand the prayer-book that Falk had brought on deck.
+
+Disconcerted by this unexpected act and angered by the murmur of approval
+from the men, Falk started to speak, then thought better of it and sidled
+over beside Kipping, to whom he whispered something at which they both
+laughed heartily. Then they stood smiling scornfully while Roger went down
+beside poor Bill's body.
+
+Roger opened the prayer-book, turned the pages deliberately, and began to
+read the service slowly and with feeling. He was younger and more slender
+than many of the men, but straight and tall and handsome, and I remember
+how proud of him I felt for taking affairs in his own hands and making the
+best of a bad situation.
+
+"We therefore commit his body to the deep," he read "looking for the
+general Resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come,
+through our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose second coming in glorious majesty
+to judge the world, the sea shall give up her dead; and the corruptible
+bodies of those who sleep in Him shall be changed and made like unto his
+glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue
+all things unto Himself."
+
+Then Blodgett, Davie Paine, the cook, and the man from Boston lifted the
+plank and inclined it over the bulwark, and so passed all that was mortal
+of poor Bill Hayden.
+
+Suddenly, in the absolute silence that ensued when Roger closed the
+prayer-book, I became aware that he was signaling me to come nearer, and I
+stepped over beside him. At the same instant the reason for it burst upon
+me. Now, if ever, was the time to turn against Captain Falk.
+
+"Men," said Roger in a low voice, "are you going to stand by without
+lifting a hand and see a shipmate's dead body insulted?"
+
+The crew came together in a close group about their supercargo. With stern
+faces and with the heavy breathing of men who contemplate some rash or
+daring deed, they were, I could see, intent on what Roger had to say.
+
+He looked from one to another of them as if to appraise their spirit and
+determination. "I represent the owners," he continued tersely. "The owners'
+orders are not being obeyed. Mind what I tell you--_the owners' orders are
+not being obeyed._ You know why as well as I do, and you remember this:
+though it may seem on the face of it that I advocate mutiny or even piracy,
+if we take the ship from the present captain and carry out the voyage and
+obey the owners' orders, I can promise you that there'll be a fine rich
+reward waiting at Salem for every man here. What's more, it'll be an honest
+reward, with credit from the owners and all law-abiding men. But enough of
+that! It's a matter of ordinary decency--of common honesty! The man who
+will conspire against the owners of this ship is a contemptible cur, a fit
+shipmate with the brute who horsed poor Bill to death."
+
+I never had lacked faith in Roger, but never before had I appreciated to
+the full his reckless courage and his unyielding sense of personal honor.
+
+He paused and again glanced from face to face. "What say, men? Are you with
+me?" he cried, raising his voice.
+
+Meanwhile Captain Falk, aware that something was going on forward, shouted
+angrily, "Here, here! What's all this! Come, lay to your work, you sons of
+perdition, or I'll show you what's what. You, Blodgett, go forward and
+heave that lead as you were told."
+
+In his hand Blodgett held the seven-pound dipsey lead, but he stood his
+ground.
+
+"Well?" Falk came down on us like a whirlwind. "Well? You, Hamlin, what in
+Tophet are you backing and hauling about?"
+
+"I? Backing and hauling?" Roger spoke as calmly as you please. "I am merely
+advocating that the men take charge of the ship in the name of the lawful
+owners and according to their orders."
+
+As Captain Falk sprang forward to strike him down, there came a thin, windy
+cry, "No you don't; no, you don't!"
+
+To my amazement I saw that it was old Blodgett.
+
+"It don't do to insult the dead," he cried in a voice like the yowl of a
+tom-cat. "You can kill us all you like. It's captain's rights. But, by the
+holy, you ain't got no rights whatsoever to refuse a poor sailor a decent
+burial."
+
+With a vile oath, Captain Falk contemplated this new factor in the
+situation. Suddenly he yelled, "Kipping! It's mutiny! Help!" And with a
+clutch at his hip he drew his pistol.
+
+"'Heave the lead' is it?" Blodgett muttered. "Ay, I'll heave the lead." He
+whipped up his arm and hurled the missile straight at Captain Falk's head.
+
+The captain dodged, but the lead struck his shoulder and felled him.
+
+Seeing Kipping coming silently with a pistol in each hand, I ducked and
+tried to pull Roger over beside Blodgett; but Roger, instantly aware of
+Kipping's move, spun on his heel as the first bullet flew harmlessly past
+us, and lithely stepped aside. With a single swing of his right arm he cut
+Kipping across the face with a rope's end and stopped him dead.
+
+As the welt reddened on his face, Kipping staggered, leveled his other
+pistol point-blank and pulled the trigger.
+
+For the moment I could not draw breath, but the pistol missed fire.
+
+"Flashed in the pan!" Roger cried, and tugged at his own pistol, which had
+caught inside his shirt where he had carried it out of sight. "That's not
+all--that's flashed in the pan!"
+
+"Now then, you fools," Kipping shrieked. "Go for 'em! Go for'em! The bell's
+struck! Now's the time!"
+
+So far it all had happened so suddenly and so extraordinarily swiftly, with
+one event fairly leaping at the heels of another, that the men were
+completely dazed.
+
+Captain Falk sat on the deck with his hand pressed against his injured
+shoulder and with his pistol lying beside him where he had dropped it when
+he fell. Kipping, the red bruise showing across his face, confronted us
+with one pistol smoking, the other raised; Blodgett, having thrown the
+lead, was drawing his knife from the sheath; Roger was pulling desperately
+at his own pistol; and for my part I was in a state of such complete
+confusion that to this day I don't know what I did or said. In the moments
+that followed we were to learn once and for all the allegiance of every man
+aboard the Island Princess.
+
+One of the men from Boston, evidently picking me out as the least
+formidable of the trio, shot a quick glance back at Kipping as if to be
+sure of his approval, and springing at me, knocked me flat on my back. I
+felt sure he was going to kill me when he reached for my throat. But I
+heard behind me a thunderous roar, "Heah Ah is! Heah Ah is!" And out of the
+corner of my eye I saw the cook, the meat-cleaver in his hand, leaping to
+my rescue, with Roger, one hand still inside his shirt, scarcely a foot
+behind him.
+
+The man from Boston scrambled off me and fled.
+
+"Ah's with you-all foh one," the cook cried, swinging his cleaver. "Ah
+ain't gwine see no po' sailor man done to death and me not say 'What foh!'"
+
+"You fool! You black fool!" Chips shrieked, shaking his fist, "Stand by and
+share up! Stand by and share up!"
+
+
+Neddie Benson jumped over beside the cook. "Me too!" he called shrilly.
+"Bad luck or good luck, old Bill he done his best and was fair murdered."
+
+Poor Bill! His martyrdom stood us in good stead in our hour of need.
+
+On the other side of the deck there was a lively struggle from which came
+fierce yells as each man sought to persuade his friends to his own way of
+thinking:
+
+"Stand by, lads, stand by--"
+
+"----the bloody money!--"
+
+"Hanged for mutiny--"
+
+"I know where my bed's made soft--"
+
+The greater part of the men, it seemed, were lining up behind Kipping and
+Captain Falk, when a scornful shout rose and I was aware that some one else
+had come over to our side. It was old Davie Paine. "He didn't ought to
+shame me in front of all the men," Davie muttered. "No, sir, it wa'n't
+right. And what's more, there's lots o' things aboard this ship that ain't
+as they should be. I may be poor and ignorant and no shakes of a scholar,
+but I ain't goin' to put up with 'em."
+
+So we six faced the other twelve with as good grace as we could
+muster,--Roger, the cook, Blodgett, Neddie Benson, Davie, and I,--and there
+was a long silence. But Roger had got out his pistol now, and the lull in
+the storm was ominous.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+MAROONED
+
+
+That it was important to control the after part of the ship, I was well
+aware, and though we were outnumbered two to one, I hoped that by good
+fortune we might win it.
+
+I was not long in doubt of Roger's sharing my hope. He analyzed our
+opponents' position at a single glance, and ignoring their advantage in
+numbers, seized upon the only chance of taking them by surprise. Swinging
+his arm and crying, "Come, men! All for the cabin!" he flung himself
+headlong at Falk. I followed close at his heels--I was afraid to be left
+behind. I heard the cook grunt hoarsely as he apprehended the situation and
+sprang after us. Then the others met us with knives and pistols.
+
+Our attack was futile and soon over, but while it lasted there was a merry
+little fight. As a man slashed at Roger with a case-knife, laying open a
+long gash in his cheek, Roger fired a shot from his pistol, and the fellow
+pitched forward and lay still except for his limbs, which twitched
+sickeningly. For my own part, seeing another who had run aft for a weapon
+swing at me with a cutlass, I threw myself under his guard and got my arms
+round both his knees. As something crashed above me, I threw the fellow
+back and discovered that the cook had met the cutlass in full swing with
+the cleaver and had shattered it completely. Barely in time to escape a
+murderous blow that the carpenter aimed at me with his hammer, I scrambled
+to my feet and leaped back beside Roger, who held his cheek with his hand.
+
+I believe it was the cook's cleaver that saved our lives for the time
+being. Falk and Kipping had fired the charges in their pistols, and no one
+was willing to venture within reach of the black's long arm and brutal
+weapon. So, having spent our own last charge of powder, we backed away into
+the bow with our faces to the enemy, and the only sounds to be heard were
+flapping sails and rattling blocks, the groans of the poor fellow Roger had
+shot, and the click of a powder-flask as Falk reloaded and passed his
+ammunition to Kipping.
+
+"So," said Falk at last, "we have a fine little mutiny brewing, have we?"
+He looked first at us, then at those who remained true to him and his
+schemes. "Well, Mr. Kipping, with the help of Chips here, we can make out
+to work the ship at a pinch. Yes, I think we can dispense with these young
+cocks altogether. Yes,--" he raised his voice and swore roundly--"yes, we
+can follow our own gait and fare a damned sight better without them. We'll
+let them have a boat and row back to Salem. A voyage of a few thousand
+miles at the oars will be a rare good thing to tone down a pair of young
+fighting cocks." Then he added, smiling, "If they meet with no Ladronesers
+or Malays to clip their spurs."
+
+Captain Falk looked at Kipping and his men, and they all laughed.
+
+"Ay, so it will," cried Kipping. "And old Davie Paine 'll never have a
+mister to his name again. You old lubber, you, your bones will be rotting
+at the bottom of the sea when we're dividing up the gold."
+
+Again the men laughed loudly.
+
+Davie flushed and stammered, but Blodgett spoke out bitterly.
+
+"So they will, before you or Captain Falk divide with any of the rest. Ah!
+Red in the face, are ye? That shot told. Davie 'd rather take his chances
+with a gentleman than be second mate under either one o' you two. He may
+not know when he's well off, but he knows well when he ain't."
+
+For all Blodgett spoke so boldly, I could see that Davie in his own heart
+was still afraid of Kipping. But Kipping merely smiled in his mean way and
+slowly looked us over.
+
+"If we was to walk them over a plank," he suggested, deferentially, to the
+captain, "there would be an end to all bother with them."
+
+"No," said Falk, "give them a boat. It's all the same in the long run, and
+I ain't got the stomach to watch six of them drown one after another."
+
+Kipping raised his eyebrows at such weakness; then a new thought seemed to
+dawn on him. His accursed smile grew broader and he began to laugh softly.
+For the moment I could not imagine what he was laughing at, but his next
+words answered my unspoken question. "Ha ha ha! Right you are, captain!
+Just think of 'em, a-sailing home in a ship's boat! Oh, won't they have a
+pretty time?"
+
+The predicament of six fellow men set adrift in an open boat pleased the
+man's vile humor. We knew that he believed he was sending us to certain
+death, and that he delighted in it.
+
+"This fine talk is all very well," said Roger, "and I've no doubt you think
+yourselves very witty, but let that be as it may. As matters stand now,
+you've got the upper hand--though I wish you joy of working the ship.
+However, if you give us the long-boat and a fair allowance of water and
+bread, we'll ask nothing more."
+
+"Ah," said Falk, with a leer at Kipping who was smiling quietly, "the
+long-boat and a fair allowance of water and bread! Ay, next they'll be
+wanting us to set 'em up in their own ship." He changed suddenly from a
+leer to a snarl. "You'll take what I give you and nothing more nor less.
+Now then, men, we'll just herd these hearties overboard and bid them a gay
+farewell."
+
+He stood there, pointing the way with a grand gesture and the late
+afternoon sun sparkled on the buttons of his coat and shone brightly on the
+fine white shirt he wore, which in better days had belonged to Captain
+Whidden. "Murderer and thief!" I thought. For although about Captain
+Whidden's death I knew nothing more than the cook's never-to-be-forgotten
+words, "a little roun' hole in the back of his head--he was shot f'om
+behine," I laid Bill Hayden's death at Captain Falk's door, and I knew well
+by now that our worthy skipper would not scruple at stealing more than
+shirts.
+
+When Falk pointed to the quarter-boat, the men, laughing harshly, closed in
+on us and drove us along by threatening us with pistols and pikes, which
+the bustling steward by now had distributed. And all the while Kipping
+stood just behind the captain, smiling as if no unkind thought had ever
+ruffled his placid nature. I could not help but be aware of his meanness,
+and I suppose it was because I was only a boy and not given to looking
+under the surface that I did not yet completely recognize in him the real
+leader of all that had gone astray aboard the Island Princess.
+
+We let ourselves be driven toward the boat. Since we were outnumbered now
+eleven to six,--not counting the wounded man of course,--and since,
+compared with the others, we were virtually unarmed, we ought, I suppose,
+to have been thankful that we were not murdered in cold blood, as doubtless
+we should have been if our dangerous plight had not so delighted Kipping's
+cruel humor, and if both Falk and Kipping had not felt certain that they
+would never see or hear of us again. But we found little comfort in
+realizing that, as matters stood, although in our own minds we were
+convinced absolutely that Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping had conspired with
+the crew to rob the owners, by the cold light of fact we could be proved in
+the wrong in any court of admiralty.
+
+So far as Roger and I were concerned, our belief was based after all
+chiefly on supposition; and so craftily had the whole scheme been phrased
+and manoeuvred that, if you got down to categorical testimony, even
+Blodgett and Davie Paine would have been hard put to it to prove anything
+culpable against the other party. Actually we were guilty of mutiny, if
+nothing more.
+
+The cook still carried his great cleaver and Blodgett unobtrusively had
+drawn and opened a big dirk knife; but Neddie Benson, Davie, and I had no
+weapons of any kind, and Roger's pistol was empty.
+
+We worked the boat outboard in silence and made no further resistance,
+though I knew from Roger's expression as he watched Falk and Kipping and
+their men, that, if he had seen a fair chance to turn the scales in our
+favor, he would have seized it at any cost.
+
+Meanwhile the sails were flapping so loudly that it was hard to hear
+Roger's voice when he again said, "Surely you'll give us food and water."
+
+"Why--no," said Falk. "I don't think you'll need it. You won't want to row
+right home without stopping to say how-d'y'-do to the natives."
+
+Again a roar of laughter came from the men on deck.
+
+As the boat lay under the side of the ship, they crowded to the rail and
+stared down at us with all sorts of rough gibes at our expense.
+Particularly they aimed then-taunts at Davie Paine and Blodgett, who a
+short time before had been hand-in-glove with them; and I was no little
+relieved to see that their words seemed only to confirm the two in their
+determination, come what might, never to join forces again with Falk and
+Kipping. But Kipping singled out the cook and berated him with a stream of
+disgusting oaths.
+
+"You crawling black nigger, you," he yelled. "Now what'll _you_ give _me_
+for a piece of pie?"
+
+Holding the cleaver close at his side, the negro looked up at the fox who
+was abusing him, and burst into wild vituperation. Although Kipping only
+laughed in reply, there was a savage and intense vindictiveness in the
+negro's impassioned jargon that chilled my blood. I remember thinking then
+that I should dread being in Kipping's shoes if ever those two met again.
+
+As we cast off, we six in that little boat soon to be left alone in the
+wastes of the China Sea, we looked up at the cold, laughing faces on which
+the low sun shone with an orange-yellow light, and saw in them neither pity
+nor mercy. The hands resting on the bulwark, the hands of our own
+shipmates, were turned against us.
+
+The ship was coming back to her course now, and some of us were looking at
+the distant island with the cone-shaped peaks, toward which by common
+consent we had turned our bow, when the cook, who still stared back at
+Kipping, seemed to get a new view of his features. Springing up suddenly,
+he yelled in a great voice that must have carried far across the sea:--
+
+"You Kipping, Ah got you--Ah got you--Ah knows who you is--Ah knows who you
+is--you crimp's runner, you! You blood-money sucker, you! Ah seen you in
+Boston! Ah seen you befo' now! A-a-a-ah!--a-a-a-ah!" And he shook his great
+black fist at the mate.
+
+The smile on Kipping's face was swept away by a look of consternation. With
+a quick motion he raised his loaded pistol, which he had primed anew, and
+fired on us; then, snatching another from one of the crew, he fired again,
+and stood with the smoking weapons, one in each hand, and a snarl fixed on
+his face.
+
+Captain Falk was staring at the negro in wrath and amazement, and there was
+a stir on the deck that aroused my strong curiosity. But the cook was
+groaning so loudly that we could hear no word of what was said, so we bent
+to the oars with all our strength and rowed out of range toward the distant
+island.
+
+Kipping's second ball had grazed the negro's head and had left a deep
+furrow from which blood was running freely. But for the thickness of his
+skull I believe it would have killed him.
+
+Once again the sails of the Island Princess, as we watched her, filled with
+wind and she bore away across the sapphire blue of the sea with all her
+canvas spread, as beautiful a sight as I have ever seen. The changing
+lights in the sky painted the water with opalescent colors and tinted the
+sails gold and crimson and purple, and by and by, when the sun had set and
+the stars had come out and the ocean had darkened, we still could make her
+out, smaller and ghostlike in the distance, sailing away before light winds
+with the money and goods all under her hatches.
+
+Laboring at the oars, we rowed on and on and on. Stars, by which we now
+held our course, grew bright overhead, and after a time we again saw dimly
+the shores of the island. We dared not stay at sea in a small open boat
+without food or water, and the island was our only refuge.
+
+Presently we heard breakers and saw once more the bluff headlands that we
+had seen from the deck of the Island Princess. Remembering that there had
+been low shores farther south, we rowed on and on, interminably and at
+last, faint and weary, felt the keel of the boat grate on a muddy beach.
+
+At all events we had come safely to land.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ADVENTURES ASHORE
+
+
+As we rested on our oars by the strange island, and smelled the warm odor
+of the marsh and the fragrance of unseen flowers, and listened to the
+_wheekle_ of a night-hawk that circled above us, we talked of one thing and
+another, chiefly of the men aboard the Island Princess and how glad we were
+to be done with them forever.
+
+"Ay," said Davie Paine sadly, "never again 'll I have the handle before my
+name. But what of that? It's a deal sight jollier in the fo'castle than in
+the cabin and I ain't the scholar to be an officer." He sighed heavily.
+
+"It warn't so jolly this voyage," Neddie Benson muttered, "what with Bill
+Hayden passing on, like he done."
+
+We were silent for a time. For my own part, I was thinking about old Bill's
+"little wee girl at Newbury-port" waiting for her stupid old dad to come
+back to her, and I have an idea that the others were thinking much the same
+thoughts. But soon Blodgett stirred restlessly, and the cook, the cleaver
+on his knees, cleared his throat and after a premonitory grunt or two began
+to speak.
+
+"Boy, he think Ah ain't got no use foh boys," he chuckled. "Hee-ha ha! Ah
+fool 'em. Stew'd, he say, 'Frank, am you with us o' without us?' He say,
+'Am you gwine like one ol' lobscozzle idjut git cook's pay all yo' life?'
+
+"'Well,' Ah says, 'what pay you think Ah'm gwine fob to git? Cap'n's pay,
+maybe? 0' gin'ral's pay? Yass, sah. Ef Ah'm cook Ah'm gwine git cook's
+pay.'
+
+"Den he laff hearty and slap his knee and he say 'Ef you come in with us,
+you won't git cook's pay, no' sah. You is gwine git pay like no admiral
+don't git if you come in with us. Dah's money 'board dis yeh ol'
+ship.'
+
+"'Yass, sah,' says I, suspicionin' su'thin' was like what it didn't had
+ought to be. 'But dat's owner's money.'
+
+"Den stew'd, he say, 'Listen! You come in with me and Cap'n Falk and Mistah
+Kipping, and we's gwine split dat yeh money all up'twix' one another. Yass,
+sah! But you all gotta have nothin' to do with dat yeh Mistah Hamlin and
+dat yeh cocky li'le Ben Lathrop.'
+
+"'Oh no,' Ah says inside, so stew'd he don't heah me. 'Guess you all don't
+know me and dat yeh Ben Lathrop is friends.'
+
+"Den Ah stop sudden. 'Mah golly,' Ah think, 'dey's a conspiration a-foot,
+yass, sah, and if dis yeh ol' nigger don't look out dey gwine hu't de boy.'
+If Ah gits into dat yeh conspiration, den Ah guess Ah'll snoop roun' and
+learn what Ah didn't had ought to, and when time come, den mah golly, Ah'll
+took good keer of dat boy. So Ah done like Ah'm sayin' now, and Ah says to
+stew'd, 'Yass, sah, yass, sah,' and Ah don't let boy come neah de galley
+and Ah don't give him no pie nor cake, but when time come Ah take good keer
+of him, and Ah's tellin' you, Ah knows a lot 'bout what dem crawlin'
+critters yonder on ship think dey gwine foh to do."
+
+With a glance toward me in the darkness that I verily believe expressed as
+much genuine affection as so villainous a black countenance could show,
+Frank got out his rank pipe and began packing it full of tobacco.
+
+Here was further evidence of what we so long had suspected. But as I
+reflected on it, with forgiveness in my heart for every snub the faithful,
+crafty old darky had given me and with amusement at the simple way he had
+tricked the steward and Falk and Kipping, I recalled his parting remarks to
+our worthy mate.
+
+"What was that you said to Mr. Kipping just as we gave way this afternoon?"
+I asked.
+
+"Hey, what dat?" Frank growled.
+
+"When had you seen Kipping before?"
+
+There was a long silence, then Frank spoke quietly and yet with obvious
+feeling. "Ah got a bone to pick with Kipping," he said, "but dat yeh's a
+matter 'twix' him and me."
+
+All this time Roger had watched and listened with a kindly smile.
+
+"Well, men," he now said, "we've had a chance to rest and get our wind.
+It's time we set to work. What do you say, hadn't we better haul the boat
+out?"
+
+Although we tacitly had accepted Roger as commander of our expedition, he
+spoke always with a certain deference to the greater age and experience of
+Blodgett and Davie Paine, which won them so completely that they would have
+followed him anywhere.
+
+They both looked at the sky and at the darkly rolling sea on which there
+now rested a low incoming mist; but Davie left the burden of reply to old
+Blodgett, who spoke nervously in his thin, windy voice.
+
+"Ay, sir, that we had. There's not much wind, nor is there, I think, likely
+to be much; but if we was to haul up into some bushes like those yonder,
+there won't be a thousand savages scouring the coast, come daylight,
+a-hunting for the men that came in the boat."
+
+That was sound common sense.
+
+We got out and, standing three on a side, hauled the boat by great effort
+clean out of water. Then we bent ropes to each end of three thwarts, and
+thrust an oar through the bights of each pair of ropes. Thus, with one of
+us at each end of an oar, holding it in the crooks of his elbows, we made
+out to lift the boat and drag it along till we got it safely hidden in the
+bushes with the oars tucked away under it. We then smoothed out our tracks
+and restored the branches as well as we could, and held a counsel in which
+every man had an equal voice.
+
+That it would be folly to remain on the beach until daylight, we were all
+agreed. Immediately beyond the muddy shore there was, so far as we could
+tell, only a salt marsh overgrown with rank grass and scattered clumps of
+vegetation, which might conceal us after a fashion if we were willing to
+lie all day long in mud that probably swarmed with reptile life, but which
+would afford us no real security and would give us no opportunity to forage
+for fresh water and food.
+
+Blodgett, wide-eyed and restless, urged that we set out inland and travel
+as far as possible before daybreak. "You can't tell about a country like
+this," he said. "Might be we'd stumble on a temple with a lot of heathen
+idols full of gold and precious stones to make our everlasting fortunes, or
+a nigger or two with a bag of rubies tied round his neck with a string."
+
+"Yeah!" the cook grunted, irritated by Blodgett's free use of the word
+"nigger," "and Ah's tellin' you he'll have a Malay kris what'll slit yo'
+vitals and chop off yo' head; and nex' time when you gwine come to say
+howdy, you'll find yo' ol' skull a-setting in de temple, chockfull of dem
+rubies and grinnin' like he was glad to see you back again. Ah ain't gwine
+on no such promulgation, no sah! What Ah wants is a good, cool drink and a
+piece of pie. Yass, sah,"
+
+"Now that's like I feel," said Neddie Benson. "I never thought when the
+lady was tellin' me about trouble in store, that there warn't goin' to be
+enough victuals to go round--"
+
+"Ah, you make me tired," Blodgett snapped out. "Food, food, food! And
+here's a chance to find a nice little temple an' better our fortunes. Of
+course it ain't like India, but if these here slant-eyed pirates have stole
+any gold at all, it'll be in the temples."
+
+"What I'd like"--it was Davie Paine's heavy, slow voice--"is just a drink
+of water and some ship's bread."
+
+"Well," said Roger, "we'll find neither bread nor rubies lying on the
+beach, and since we're agreed that it's best to get out of sight, let's set
+off."
+
+He was about to plunge blindly into the marsh, when Blodgett, who had been
+ranging restlessly while we talked, cried, "Here's a road! As I'm alive
+here's a road!"
+
+We trooped over to where he stood, and saw, sure enough, an opening in the
+brush and grass where the ground was beaten hard as if by the passing of
+many feet.
+
+"Well, let's be on our way," said Blodgett, starting forward.
+
+"No, sah, dat ain't no way foh to go!" the cook exclaimed. He stood there,
+head thrown forward, chin out-thrust, the cleaver, which he had carried all
+the time since we left the ship, hanging at his side.
+
+"Why not?" asked Roger.
+
+"'Cause, sah, whar dey's a road dey's humans and humans heahbouts on dese
+yeh islands is liable to be drefful free with strangers. Yass, sah, if we
+go a-walkin' along dat yeh road, fust thing we know we's gwine walk into a
+whole mob of dem yeh heathens. Den whar'll we be?" In answer to his
+question, the negro thrust out his left hand and, grasping an imaginary
+opponent by the throat, raised the cleaver, and swept it through the air
+with a slicing motion. Looking keenly at us to be sure that we grasped the
+significance of his pantomime he remarked, "Ah want mah ol' head to stay
+put."
+
+"There ain't going to be no village till we come to trees," said Davie
+Paine slowly. "If there is, we can see it anyhow, and if there isn't, this
+road'll take us across the marsh. Once we're on the other side, we can
+leave the road and take to the hills."
+
+"There's an idea," Roger cried. "How about it, Bennie?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+Blodgett eagerly went first and the cook, apparently fearing that he was on
+his way to be served as a particularly choice tidbit at somebody else's
+banquet, came last. The rest of us just jostled along together. But Davie
+Paine, I noticed, held his head higher than I ever had seen it before; for
+Roger's appreciation of his sound common sense had pleased him beyond
+measure and had done wonders to restore his self-confidence.
+
+First there were interwoven bushes and vines beside the road, and then tall
+reeds and marsh grasses; now there was sand underfoot, now mud. But it was
+a better path by far than any we could have beaten out for ourselves, and
+we all--except the cook--were well pleased that we had taken it.
+
+The bushes and tall grasses, which shut us in, prevented our seeing the
+ocean behind us or the hills ahead, and the miasmic mist that we had
+noticed some time since billowed around our knees. But the stars were very
+bright above us, and phosphorescent creatures like fire-flies fluttered
+here and there, and, all things considered, we made excellent progress.
+
+As it had been Blodgett in his eternal peering and prowling who had found
+the path, so now it was Blodgett, bending low as he hurried at the head of
+our irregular line, who twice stopped suddenly and said that he had heard
+hoarse, distant calls.
+
+Each time, when the rest of us came up to him and listened, they had died
+away, but Blodgett now had lost his confident air. He bent lower as he
+walked and he peered ahead in a way that seemed to me more prowling and
+catlike than ever. As we advanced his uneasiness grew on him, until
+presently he turned and raised his hand. The five of us crowded close
+together behind him and listened intently.
+
+For a while, as before, we heard nothing; then suddenly a new, strange
+noise came to our ears. It was an indistinct sound of trampling, and it
+certainly was approaching.
+
+The cook grasped my arm. "'Fo' de good Lo'd!" he muttered, "dey's voices!"
+
+Now I, too, and all the others heard occasional grunts and gutturals. We
+dared not flee back to the beach, for there or in the open marshy land we
+could not escape observation, and since it had taken us a good half hour to
+carry our boat to its hiding-place, it would be utter folly to try to
+launch it and put out to sea.
+
+Not knowing which way to turn, the six of us stood huddled together like
+frightened sheep, in the starlight, in the centre of that great marsh, with
+the white mist sweeping up around the bushes, and waited for we knew not
+what.
+
+As the noise of tramping and the guttural voices grew louder, Blodgett
+gasped, "Look! In heaven's name, look there!"
+
+Where the path wound over a gentle rise, which was blurred to our eyes by
+the mist, there appeared a moving black mass above which swayed and rose
+and fell what seemed to our excited vision the points of a great number of
+spears.
+
+With one accord we turned and plunged from the path straight into the marsh
+and ran with all our might and main. The cook, who hitherto had brought up
+the rear, now forged to the front, springing ahead with long jumps.
+Occasionally, as he leaped even higher to clear a bush or a stump, I could
+see his kinky round head against the sky, and catch the flash of starlight
+on his cleaver, which he still carried. Close behind him ran Neddie Benson,
+who saw in the adventures of the night a more terrible fulfillment of the
+plump lady's prophecies than ever he had dreamed of; then came Roger and I,
+and at my shoulder I heard Davie's heavy breathing and Blodgett's hard
+gasps.
+
+To snakes or other reptiles that may have inhabited the warm pools through
+which we splashed, we gave no thought. Somewhere ahead of us there was high
+land--had we not rowed close enough to the promontory to hear breakers?
+When Davie and Blodgett fairly panted to us to stop for breath, the cook
+and Neddie Benson with one voice urged us on to the hills where we could
+find rocks or trees for a shelter from which to stand off whatever savages
+might pursue us.
+
+Though we tried to make as little noise as possible, our splashing and
+crashing as we raced now in single file, now six abreast, now as
+irregularly as half a dozen sheep, must have been audible to keen ears a
+mile away. When we came at last to woods and drier ground, we settled down
+to a steady jog, which was much less noisy, but even then we stumbled and
+fell and clattered and thrashed as we labored on.
+
+At first we had heard in the night behind us, repeated over and over again,
+those hoarse, unintelligible calls and certain raucous blasts, which we
+imagined came from some crude native trumpet; but as we climbed, the rising
+mist floated about us, and hearing less of the calling and the blasts, we
+slowed down to a hard walk and went on up, up, up, through trees and over
+rocks, with the mist in our faces and obscuring the way until we could not
+see three feet in front of us, but had to keep together by calling
+cautiously now and then.
+
+Blodgett, coming first to a ridge of rock, stopped high above us like a
+shadow cast by the moonlight on the mist.
+
+"Here's the place to make a stand," he cried in his thin voice. "A nat'ral
+fort to lay behind. Come, lads, over we go!"
+
+Up on the rock we scrambled, all of us ready to jump down on the other
+side, when Neddie Benson called on us to stop, and with a queer cry let
+himself fall back the way he had come. Fearing that he was injured, we
+paused reluctantly.
+
+"Don't go over that rock," he cried.
+
+"Why not?" Roger asked.
+
+"It gives me a sick feeling inside."
+
+"Stuff!" exclaimed Blodgett. "Behind that rock we'll be safe from all the
+heathen in the Chinese Sea."
+
+"The lady she said there'd be trouble," Neddie wailed insistently, "and I
+ain't going over that rock. No, sir, not when I feel squeamish like I do
+now."
+
+With an angry snort Blodgett hesitated on the very summit of the ledge.
+"Come on, come on," he said.
+
+"Listen dah!" the cook whispered.
+
+I thought of savage yells and trampling feet when, crouching on hands and
+knees, I listened; but I heard none of them. The sound that came to my ears
+was the faint, distant rumble of surf breaking on rocks.
+
+Now Roger spoke sharply: "Steady, men, go slow."
+
+"The sea's somewhere beyond us," I said.
+
+"Come, come," Blodgett repeated tiresomely in his thin windy voice, "over
+these rocks and we'll be safe." He was so confident and eager that we were
+on the very point of following him. I actually leaned out over the edge
+ready to leap down. Never did a man's strange delusion come nearer to
+leading his comrades to disaster!
+
+The cook raised his hand. "Look--look dah!"
+
+He was staring past Blodgett's feet, past my hands, down at the rocks
+whither we were about to drop. The mist was opening slowly. There was
+nothing for more than six feet below us--for more than twelve feet. Now the
+mist eddied up to the rock again; now it curled away and opened out until
+we could look down to the ghostly, phosphorescent whiteness of waves
+breaking on rough stones almost directly under us. Blodgett, with a queer,
+frightened expression, crawled back to Neddie Benson.
+
+We were sitting at the brink of a sheer precipice, which fell away more
+than two hundred feet to a mass of jagged rock on which the sea was booming
+with a hollow sound like the voice of a great bell.
+
+"Well, here we'll have to make our stand if they follow us," said Davie.
+
+Although the rest were white with horror at the death we so narrowly had
+avoided, old Davie did not even breathe more quickly. The man had no more
+imagination than a porpoise.
+
+Gathering in the lee of the rocky ridge, we took stock of our weapons and
+recovered our self-possession. The cook again ran his thumb-nail along the
+edge of the cleaver; Roger examined the lock of his pistol--I saw a queer
+expression on his face at the time, but he said nothing; Blodgett sharpened
+his knife on his calloused palm and the rest of us found clubs and stones.
+We could flee no farther. Here, if we were pursued, we must fight. But
+although we waited a long time, no one came. The mist gradually passed off;
+the stars again shone brightly, and the moon presently peeped out from
+between the cone-shaped mountains on our eastern horizon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+IN WHICH THE TIDE TURNS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+IN LAST RESORT
+
+
+"They're not on our heels at all events," said Roger, when we had sat
+silent and motionless until we were cramped from head to foot. Of our
+little band, he was by far the least perturbed. "If we should set an anchor
+watch, we could sleep, turn and turn about. What do you say to that?"
+
+
+He had a way with him, partly the quiet humor that twinkled in his eyes,
+partly his courteous manner toward all of us, particularly the older men,
+that already had endeared him to every member of our company, and a general
+murmur of assent answered him.
+
+"Blodgett, Neddie, and I'll stand first watch, then. We'll make the watches
+three hours on deck and three below, if you say so. You others had best
+hunt out an easy place to sleep, but let every man keep his knife or club
+where he can snatch it up in case of attack."
+
+Remembering his comfortable quarters in the steerage of the Island
+Princess, the cook groaned; but we found a spot where there was some
+sun-baked earth, which we covered with such moss as we could lay our hands
+on, threw ourselves down, and fell asleep forthwith.
+
+We were so stiff when the other three waked us that we scarcely could stand
+without help; but we gradually worked new life into our sore muscles and
+took our stations with as much good-will as we could muster. Roger gave us
+his watch to tell the time by, and we agreed on separate posts from which
+to guard against surprise--the cook a little way down the hill to the
+right, Davie Paine farther to the left, and I on the summit of the rocks
+whence I could see in all directions.
+
+The wild view from that rock would have been a rare sight for old and
+experienced voyagers, and to me, a boy in years and in travels, it was
+fascinating both for its uncommon beauty and for the thousand perils that
+it might conceal. Who could say what savages were sleeping or prowling
+about under the dark branches of yonder shadowy woods? What wild creatures
+lurked in their depths? What pirate prows were steering their course by
+yonder cone-shaped peaks or by those same bright stars that twinkled
+overhead?
+
+I studied the outline of the island, with its miles of flat marshland deep
+in grass and tangled vines, its palms and dense forests, its romantic
+mountains, and its jagged northern cliffs; I watched the moonbeams
+sparkling on the water; I watched a single light shining far out at sea. By
+and by I saw inland, on the side of one of the hills, a light shining in
+the jungle, and stared at it with a sort of unwilling fascination.
+
+A light in the jungle could mean so many things!
+
+Startled by a sound down in our own camp, I quickly turned and saw old
+Blodgett scrambling up to where I sat.
+
+"It ain't no use," he said in an undertone. "I can't sleep." He twisted his
+back and writhed like a cat that wants to scratch itself against a
+doorpost. "What an island for temples! Ah, Benny, here's our chance to make
+our everlasting fortunes."
+
+I touched him and pointed at the distant light shining out of the darkness.
+
+Sitting down beside me, he watched it intently. "I tell ye, Benny," he
+murmured thoughtfully, "either me and you and the rest of us is going to
+make our everlasting fortunes out o' these here natives, or we're going to
+lay out under these here trees until the trumpet blows for Judgment."
+
+After a time he spoke again. "Ah, but it's a night to be stirring! I'll
+stake all my pay for this unlucky voyage that there's not a native on the
+island who hasn't a bag of rubies tied round his neck with a string, or
+maybe emeralds--there's a stone for you! Emeralds are green as the sea by a
+sandy shore and bright as a cat's eyes in the dark."
+
+Morning came quickly. Pink and gold tinted the cone-shaped peaks, the sky
+brightened from the color of steel to a clear cobalt, and all at once the
+world lay before us in the cool morning air, which the sun was soon to warm
+to a vapid heat. As we gathered at the summit of the cliff over which
+Blodgett nearly had let us into eternity, we could see below, flying in and
+out, birds of the variety, as I afterwards learned, that make edible nests.
+
+It now was apparent that the light I had seen at sea was that of a ship's
+lantern, for to our amazement the Island Princess lay in the offing.
+Landward unbroken verdure extended from the slope at our feet to the base
+of the cone-shaped peaks, and of the armed force that had frightened us so
+badly the evening before we saw no sign; but when we looked at the marsh we
+rubbed our eyes and stared anew.
+
+There was the rough hillside that we had climbed in terror; there was the
+marsh with its still pools, its lush herbage, and the "road" that wound
+from the muddy beach to the forest on our left. But in the marsh, scattered
+here and there--! The truth dawned on us slowly. All at once Blodgett
+slapped his thin legs and leaned back and laughed until tears started from
+his faded eyes; Neddie Benson stared at him stupidly, then poured out a
+flood of silly oaths. The cook burst into a hoarse guffaw, and Roger and
+Davie Paine chuckled softly. We stopped and looked at each other and then
+laughed together until we had to sit down on the ground and hold our aching
+sides.
+
+In the midst of the marsh were feeding a great number of big, long-horned
+water buffaloes. We now realized that the road we had followed was one of
+their trails that the guttural calls and blasts from rude trumpets were
+their snorts and blats, that the spears we had seen were their horns viewed
+from lower ground.
+
+The ebbing tide had left our boat far from the water, and since we were
+faint from our long fast, it was plain that, if we were to survive our
+experience, we must find help soon.
+
+"If I was asked," Davie remarked thoughtfully, "I'd say the thing to do was
+to follow along the edge of that there swamp to the forest, where maybe
+we'll find a bit of a spring and some kind of an animal Mr. Hamlin can
+shoot with that pistol of his."
+
+Roger drew the pistol from his belt and regarded it with a wry smile.
+"Unfortunately," he said, "I have no powder."
+
+At all events there was no need to stay longer where we were; so, retracing
+our steps of the evening before, we skirted the marsh and came to a place
+where there were many cocoanut trees. We were bitterly disappointed to find
+that our best efforts to climb them were of no avail. We dared not try to
+fell them with the cook's cleaver, lest the noise of chopping attract
+natives; for we were convinced by the light we had seen shining in the
+jungle that the island was inhabited. So we set off cautiously into the
+woods, and slowly tramped some distance through an undergrowth that
+scratched our hands and faces and tore our clothes. On the banks of a small
+stream we picked some yellow berries, which Blodgett ate with relish, but
+which the rest of us found unpalatable. We all drank water from the hollows
+of trees,--we dared not drink from the boggy stream,--and Neddie Benson ate
+the leaves of some bushes and urged the rest of us to try them. That we
+refused, we later had reason to be deeply thankful.
+
+Following the stream we crossed a well-marked path, which caused us
+considerable uneasiness, and came at last to an open glade, at the other
+end of which we saw a person moving. At that we bent double and retreated
+as noiselessly as possible. Once out of sight in the woods, we hurried off
+in single file till we thought we had put a safe distance behind us; but
+when we stopped to rest we were terrified by a noise in the direction from
+which we had come, and we hastened to conceal ourselves under the leaves
+and bushes.
+
+The noise slowly drew nearer, as if men were walking about and beating the
+undergrowth as they approached. Blodgett stared from his covert with beady
+eyes; Neddie gripped my wrist; the cook rubbed his thumb along the blade of
+the cleaver, and Roger fingered the useless pistol. Still the noises
+approached. At the sight of something that moved I felt my heart leap and
+stand still, then Blodgett laughed softly; a pair of great birds which flew
+away as soon as they saw us stirring, had occasioned our fears.
+
+Having really seen a man in the glade by the stream, we were resolved to
+incur no foolish risks; so we cautiously returned to the hill, whence we
+could watch the beach and the broad marsh and catch between the mountains a
+glimpse of a bay to the northeast where we now saw at a great distance some
+men fishing from canoes. While the rest of us prepared another hiding-place
+among the bushes, Roger and Blodgett sallied forth once more to reconnoitre
+in a new direction.
+
+Although we no longer could see the ship, we were much perplexed that she
+had lingered off the island, and we talked of it at intervals throughout
+the day. Whatever her purpose, we were convinced that for us it augured
+ill.
+
+Presently Roger and Blodgett returned in great excitement and reported that
+the woods were full of Malays. Apparently the natives were unaware of our
+presence but we dared not venture again in search of food, so we resumed
+our regular watches and slept in our turns. As soon as the sun should set
+we planned to skirt the mountains under the cover of darkness, in desperate
+hope of finding somewhere food and water with which we could return to our
+boat and defy death by putting out to sea; but ere the brief twilight of
+the tropics had settled into night, Neddie Benson was writhing and groaning
+in mortal agony. We were alarmed, and for a time could think of no
+explanation; but after a while black Frank looked up from where he crouched
+by the luckless Neddie and fiercely muttered:--
+
+"What foh he done eat dem leaves? Hey? Tell me dat!"
+
+It was true that Neddie alone had eaten the leaves. A heavy price he was
+paying for it! We all looked at Blodgett with an anxiety that it would have
+been kinder, perhaps, to hide, and Blodgett himself seemed uneasy lest he
+should be poisoned by the berries he had eaten. But no harm came of them,
+and by the time the stars were shining again Neddie appeared to be over the
+worst of his sickness and with the help of the rest of us managed to
+stagger along. So we chose a constellation for our guide and set off
+through the undergrowth.
+
+Even Blodgett by this time had got over his notion of robbing temples.
+
+"If only we was to run on a yam patch," he said to me as together we
+stumbled forward, "or maybe some chickens or a little rice or a vegetable
+garden or a spring of cold water--"
+
+But only a heavy sigh answered him, a grunt from the cook, and a moan from
+Neddie. Our spirits were too low to be stirred even by Blodgett's visionary
+tales. It was hard to believe that the moon above the mountains was the
+same that had shone down upon us long before off the coast of Sumatra.
+
+The woods were so thick that we soon lost sight of our constellation, but
+we kept on our way, stopping often to rest, and made what progress we
+could. More than once we heard at a little distance noises that indicated
+the presence of wild beasts; and the brambles and undergrowth tore our
+clothes and scratched and cut our skin till blood ran from our hands and
+faces. But the thing that alarmed us most we heard one time when we had
+thrown ourselves on the ground to rest. Though it came from a great
+distance it unmistakably was four distinct gunshots.
+
+Too weak and exhausted to talk, yet determined to carry through our
+undertaking, we pushed on and on till we could go no farther; then we
+dropped where we stood, side by side, and slept.
+
+Morning woke us. Through the trees we saw a cone-shaped peak and a great
+marsh where buffalo were feeding. We unwittingly had circled in the night
+and had come back to within a quarter of a mile of the very point from
+which we had set forth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A STORY IN MELON SEEDS
+
+
+We were all gaunt and unkempt after our hardships of the past two days, but
+Neddie, poor fellow, looked more like a corpse than a living man and moaned
+with thirst and scarcely could sit up without help. Finding about a pint of
+water close at hand in the hollow of a tree, we carried him to it and he
+sucked it up with a straw till it was all gone; but though it relieved his
+misery, he was manifestly unable to walk, even had we dared stir abroad, so
+we stayed where we were while the sun rose to the meridian. We could find
+so little water that we all suffered from thirst, and with Neddie's
+sickness in mind none of us dared eat more leaves or berries.
+
+The afternoon slowly wore away; the tide came in across the flats; the
+shadows lengthened hour by hour. But no breath of wind cooled our hot
+faces. Neddie lay in a heap, moaning fitfully; Blodgett and Davie Paine
+slept; Roger sat with his back to a tree and watched the incoming tide; the
+cook stirred about uneasily and muttered to himself.
+
+Coming over to me, he crouched at my side and spoke of Kipping. He was
+savagely vindictive. "Hgh!" he grunted, "dat yeh crimp! He got dis nigger
+once, yass, sah. Got me to dat boa'din' house what he was runner foh. Yass,
+sah. Ah had one hunnerd dollahs in mah pants pocket, yass, sah. Nex'
+mohnin' Ah woke up th'ee days lateh 'boa'd ship bound foh London. Ah ain'
+got no hunnerd dollah in mah pants pocket. Dat yeh Kipping he didn't leave
+me no pants pocket." The old black pulled open his shirt and revealed a
+jagged scar on his great shoulder. "Look a' dat! Cap'n done dat--dat yeh
+v'yage. Hgh!"
+
+At dusk Neddie's moaning woke the sleepers, and we held a council in which
+we debated plans for the future. Daring neither to venture abroad nor to
+eat the native fruits and leaves, exhausted by exposure, perishing of
+hunger and thirst, we faced a future that was dark indeed.
+
+"As for me," said Davie calmly, "I can see only one way to end our misery."
+He glanced at the cook's cleaver as he spoke.
+
+"No, no!" Roger cried sharply. "Let us have no such talk as that, Davie."
+He hesitated, looking first at us,--his eyes rested longest on Neddie's
+hollow face,--then at the marsh; then he leaned forward and looked from one
+to another. "Men," he said, "I see no better way out of our difficulties
+than to surrender to the natives."
+
+"Oh, no, no, sah! No, sah! Don' do dat, sah! No, no no!" With a yell black
+Frank threw himself on his knees. "No, sah, no, sah! Dey's we'y devils,
+sah, dey's wuss 'n red Injuns, sah!"
+
+"Fool." Roger cried. "Be still!" Seeming to hold the negro in contempt, he
+turned to the rest of us and awaited our answer.
+
+At the time we were amazed at his harshness, and the poor cook was
+completely overwhelmed; for little as Roger said, there was something in
+his manner of saying it that burned like fire. But later, when we looked
+back on that day and remembered how bitterly we were discouraged, we saw
+reason to thank God that Roger Hamlin had had the wisdom and the power to
+crush absolutely the first sign of insubordination.
+
+Staring in a curious way at the cook, who was fairly groveling on the
+earth, Blodgett spoke up in a strangely listless voice. "I say yes, sir. If
+we're to die, we're to die anyhow, and there's a bare chance they'll feed
+us before they butcher us."
+
+"Ay," said Davie. "Me, too!"
+
+And Neddie made out to nod.
+
+The cook, watching the face of each man in turn, began to blubber; and when
+I, the youngest and last, cast my vote with the rest, he literally rolled
+on the ground and bellowed.
+
+"Get up!" Roger snapped out at him.
+
+He did so in a kind of stupid wonder.
+
+"Now then, cook, there's been enough of this nonsense. Come, let's sleep.
+At daylight to-morrow we'll be on our way."
+
+Apparently the negro at first doubted his ears; but Roger's peremptory tone
+brought him to his senses, and the frank disapproval of the others ended
+his perversity.
+
+A certain confidence that our troubles were soon to be ended in one way or
+another, coupled with exhaustion, enabled me to sleep deeply that night,
+despite the numberless perils that beset us.
+
+I was aware that the cook continually moaned to himself and that at some
+time in the night Roger and Blodgett were throwing stones at a wild beast
+that was prowling about. Then the sun shone full on my face and I woke with
+a start.
+
+Roger and Davie Paine each gave Neddie Benson an arm, Blodgett and I pushed
+ahead to find the best footing, and the cook, once more palsied with fear,
+again came last. To this day I have not been able to account for Frank's
+strange weakness. In all other circumstances he was as brave as a lion.
+
+Staggering along as best we could, we arrived at the stream we had found
+before--we dared not drink its water, even in our extremity--and followed
+it to the glade, which this time we boldly entered. At first we saw no one,
+but when we had advanced a few steps, we came upon three girls fishing from
+the bank of the stream. As they darted off along the path that led up the
+glade, we started after them, but we were so weak that, when we had gone
+only a short distance, we had to sit down on the trunk of a large tree to
+rest.
+
+About a quarter of an hour later we heard steps, and shortly seven men
+appeared by the same path.
+
+Indicating by a motion of his hand that he wished the rest of us to remain
+seated, Roger rose and went fearlessly to meet the seven. When he had
+approached within a short distance, they stopped and drew their krises, or
+knives with waved points. Never hesitating, Roger continued to advance
+until he was within six feet of them, then falling on his knees and
+extending his empty hands, he begged for mercy.
+
+For a long time they stood with drawn knives, staring at him and at us;
+then one of them put up his kris, and knelt in front of him and offered him
+both hands, which, it seemed, was a sign of friendship.
+
+When we indicated by gestures that we were hungry, they immediately gave us
+each a cocoanut; but meanwhile some twenty or thirty more natives had
+arrived at the spot where we were, and they now proceeded to take our hats
+and handkerchiefs, and to cut the buttons from our coats.
+
+Presently they gave us what must have been an order to march. At all events
+we walked with them at a brisk pace along a well-marked trail, between
+great ferns and rank canes and grasses, and after a time we came to a
+village composed of frail, low houses or bungalows, from which other
+natives came running. Some of them shook their fists at us angrily; some
+picked up sticks and clubs or armed themselves with knives and krises, and
+came trailing along behind. Children began to throw clods and pebbles at
+us. The mob was growing rapidly, and for some cause, their curiosity to see
+the white men, the like of whom most of them probably never had seen
+before, was unaccountably mixed with anger.
+
+If they were going to kill us, why did they not cut our throats and have it
+done with? Still the people came running, till the whining of their voices
+almost deafened us; and still they hustled us along, until at last we came
+to a house larger than any we had passed.
+
+Here they all stopped, and our captors, with as many of the clamoring mob
+as the place would hold, drove us through the open door into what appeared
+to be the judgment-hall of the village. Completely at their mercy, we stood
+by the judgment-seat in the centre of a large circle and waited until, at
+the end of perhaps half an hour, an even greater uproar arose in the
+distance.
+
+There was much stirring and talking and new faces continued to appear. From
+where I stood I could see that the growing throng was armed with spears and
+knives. More and more natives pressed into the ring that surrounded us and
+listened intently to a brisk discussion, of which none of us could
+understand a word.
+
+In one corner was a heap of melons; in another were spears and shields. I
+was looking at them curiously when something familiar just above them
+caught my eye and sent a stab of fear through my heart. In that array of
+savage weapons were _three ship's cutlasses_. I was familiar enough with
+the rife of those Eastern islands to know what that meant.
+
+Everywhere in the dim hall were bared knives, and muttering voices now and
+then rose to loud shrieks. What with faintness and fatigue and fear, I felt
+myself growing weak and dizzy. The circle of hostile faces and knives and
+spears seemed suddenly dim and far-away. In all the hut I could see only
+the three ship's cutlasses in the corner, and think only of what a grand
+history theirs must have been.
+
+The distant roar that came slowly nearer seemed so much like a dream that I
+thought I must be delirious, and rubbed my eyes and ears and tried to
+compose myself; but the roar continued to grow louder, and now a more
+intense clamor arose. The crowd parted and in through the open lane came a
+wild, tall man, naked except for a pair of short breeches, a girdle, and a
+red handkerchief on his head, who carried a drawn kris. Coming within the
+circle, he stopped and stared at us. Then everything grew white and I found
+myself lying on my back on the floor, looking up at them all and wondering
+if they had killed me already. Small wonder that starvation and exposure
+had proved too much for me!
+
+Roger was down on his knees beside me,--he told me long afterwards that
+nothing ever gave him such a start as did my ghastly pallor,--and the
+others, in the face of our common danger, gathered round me solicitously.
+All, that is, except the cook; for, although our captors had exhibited a
+lively curiosity about those of us who were white, they had frightened the
+poor negro almost out of his wits by feeling of his cheeks and kinky hair
+and by punching his ribs with their fingers, until now, having been
+deprived of his beloved cleaver, he cowered like a scared puppy before the
+gravely interested natives. "O Lo'd," he muttered between chattering teeth,
+"O Lo'd, why am dis yeh nigger so popolous? O Lo'd, O Lo'd, dah comes
+anotheh--dah comes anotheh!"
+
+Of the hostility of our captors there now could be no doubt. The sinister
+motion of their weapons, the angry glances that they persistently darted at
+us, the manner and inflection of their speech, all were threatening. But
+Roger, having made sure that I was not injured, was on his feet and already
+had faced boldly the angry throng.
+
+Though we could not understand the savages and they could not understand
+us, Roger's earnestness when he began to speak commanded their attention,
+and the chief fixed his eyes on him gravely. But some one else repeated it
+twice a phrase that sounded like "Pom-pom, pom-pom!" And the rest burst
+into angry yells.
+
+Roger indignantly threw his hands down,--palms toward the chief,--as if to
+indicate that we had come in friendship; but the man laughed scornfully and
+repeated the phrase, "Pom-pom!"
+
+Again Roger spoke indignantly; again he threw his hands down, palms out.
+But once more the cry, "Pom-pom, pom-pom," rose fiercely, and the angry
+throng pressed closer about us. The rest of us had long since despaired of
+our lives, and for the moment even Roger was baffled.
+
+"Pom-pom, pom-pom!"
+
+What the phrase meant we had not the remotest idea, but that our state now
+was doubly perilous the renewed hubbub and the closing circle of weapons
+convinced us.
+
+"Pom-pom, pom-pom!" Again and again in all parts of the hall we heard the
+mysterious words.
+
+Was there nothing that we could do to prove our good faith? Nothing to show
+them that at least we did not come as enemies?
+
+Over Davie Fame's face an odd expression now passed. He was staring at the
+heap of melons.
+
+"Mr. Hamlin," he said in a low voice, "if we was to cut a ship out of one
+of them melons, and a boat and some men, we could show these 'ere heathen
+how we didn't aim to bother them, and then maybe they'd let us go away
+again."
+
+"Davie, Davie, man," Roger cried, "there's an idea!"
+
+I was completely bewildered. What could Davie mean, I wondered. Melons and
+a ship? Were he and Roger mad? From Roger's actions I verily believed they
+were.
+
+He faced our captors for a moment as if striving to think of some way to
+impress them; then, with a quick gesture, he deliberately got down on the
+floor and took the chief's foot and placed it on his head, to signify that
+we were completely in the fellow's power. Next he rose and faced the man
+boldly, and began a solemn and impressive speech. His grave air and stern
+voice held their attention, though they could not understand a word he
+said; and before their interest had time to fail, he drew from his pocket a
+penknife, a weapon so small that it had escaped their prying fingers, and
+walking deliberately to the corner where the melons were heaped up, took
+one of them and began to cut it.
+
+At first they started forward; but when Roger made no hostile motion, they
+gathered round him in silence to see what he was doing.
+
+"Here, men, is the ship," he said gravely, "and here the boats." Kneeling
+and continuing his speech, he cut from the melon-rind a roughly shaped
+model of a ship, and stuck in it, to represent masts, three slivers of
+bamboo, which he split from a piece that lay on the floor; then he cut a
+smaller model, which he laid on the deck of the ship, to represent a boat.
+On one side of the deck he upright six melon seeds, on the other twelve.
+Pointing at the six seeds and holding up six fingers, he pointed at each
+of us in turn.
+
+Suddenly one of the natives cried out in his own tongue; then another and
+another seemed to understand Roger's meaning as they jabbered among
+themselves and in turn pointed at the six seeds and at the six white men
+whom they had captured.
+
+Roger then imitated a fight, shaking his fists and slashing as if with a
+cutlass, and, last of all, he pointed his finger, and cried, "Bang! Bang!"
+
+At this the natives fairly yelled in excitement and repeated over and over,
+"Pom--pom--pom--pom!"
+
+"Bang-bang!"--"Pom-pom!" We suddenly understood the phrase that they had
+used so often.
+
+Now in dead silence, all in the hut, brown men and white, pressed close
+around the melon-rind boat on the floor. So moving the melon seeds that it
+was obvious that the six men represented by six seeds were being driven
+overboard, Roger next set the boat on the floor and transferred them to it.
+Lining up all the rest along the side of the ship, he cried loudly, "Bang
+bang!"
+
+"Cook," he called, beckoning to black Frank, "come here!"
+
+As the negro reluctantly obeyed, Roger pointed to the long gash that
+Kipping's bullet had cut in his kinky scalp. Crying again, "Bang-bang!" he
+pointed at one of the seeds in the boat and then at the cook.
+
+Not one of them who could see the carved boats failed to understand what
+Roger meant, and the brown men looked at Frank and laughed and talked more
+loudly and excitedly than ever. Then the chief stood up and cried to some
+one in the farthest corner of the room, and at that there was more laughing
+and shouting. The man in the corner seemed much abashed; but those about
+him pushed him forward, and he was shoved along through the crowd until he,
+too, stood beside the table, where a dozen men pointed at his head and
+cried "Bang-bang!" or "Pom-pom!" as the case might be.
+
+To our amazement we saw that just over his right temple there was torn the
+path of a bullet, exactly that on the cook's head.
+
+[Illustration:
+He cut from the melon-rind a roughly shaped model of a ship and stuck in
+it, to represent masts, three slivers of bamboo.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+NEW ALLIES
+
+
+Now the chief reached for Roger's knife and deftly whittled out the shape
+of a native canoe. In it he placed several seeds, then, pushing it against
+the carved ship, he pointed to the man with the bullet wound on his temple
+and cried, "Pom-pom!" Next he pointed at two seeds in the boat and said,
+"Pom-pom," and snapped them out of the canoe with his finger.
+
+"Would you believe it!" Blodgett gasped. "The heathens went out to the ship
+in one o' them boats, and Falk fired on 'em!"
+
+"And two of 'em was killed!" Davie exclaimed unnecessarily.
+
+Roger now laid half a melon on the floor, its flat side down, and moved the
+boat slowly over to it.
+
+That the half-melon represented the island was apparent to all. The natives
+crowded round us, jabbering questions that we could not understand and of
+course could not answer; they examined the cook's wound and compared it
+with the wound their friend had suffered; they pointed at the little boats
+cut out of melon-rind and laughed uproariously.
+
+Now one of them made a suggestion, the others took it up, and the chief
+split melons and offered a half to each of us.
+
+We ate them like the starving men we were, and did not notice that the
+chief had assembled his head men for a consultation, until he sent a man
+running from the hall, returned shortly with six pieces of betel nut, which
+the natives chew instead of tobacco, and gave them to the chief, who handed
+one to each of us as a mark of friendship. Next, to our amazement, one of
+the natives produced Roger's useless pistol and handed it back to him; and
+as if that were a signal, one after another they restored our knives and
+clubs, until, last of all, a funny little man with a squint handed the
+cleaver back to the cook.
+
+With a tremendous sigh of relief, Frank seized the mighty weapon and laid
+it on his knee and buried his big white teeth in half a melon. "Mah golly!"
+he muttered, when he had swallowed the huge mouthful and had wiped his lips
+and chin with the back of his hand, "Ah neveh 'spected to see dis yeh
+felleh again. No, sah!" And he tapped the cleaver lovingly.
+
+The chief, who had been talking earnestly with his counselors, now made
+signs to attract our attention. Obviously he wished to tell us a story of
+his own. He cut out a number of slim canoes from the melon-rind and laid
+them on the half-melon that represented the island; next, he pushed the
+ship some distance away on the floor. Blowing on it through pursed lips, he
+turned it about and drew it back toward the half-melon that represented the
+island. When it was in the lee of the island, he stopped it and looked up
+at us and smiled and pointed out of the door. We were puzzled. Seeing our
+blank expressions, he repeated the process. Still we could not understand.
+
+Persisting in his efforts, he now launched three roughly carved canoes, in
+which he placed a number of seeds, pointing at himself and various others;
+then in each of the prows he placed two seeds and pointed at the six of us,
+two at a time. Pointing next at the roof of the hut, he waved his hand from
+east to west and closed his eyes as if in sleep, after which he placed his
+finger on his lips, pushed the carved canoes very slowly across the floor
+toward the ship, then, with a screech that made our hair stand on end, he
+rushed them at the seeds that represented Captain Falk and his men,
+yelling, "Pom-pom-pom-pom!" and snapped the seeds off on the floor.
+
+Leaning back, he bared his teeth and laughed ferociously.
+
+Here was a plot to take the ship! Although we probably had missed the fine
+points of it, we could not mistake its general character.
+
+"Ay," said Blodgett, as if we had been discussing the matter for hours,
+"but we'll be a pack of bloody pirates to be hanged from the yard-arms of
+the first frigate that overhauls us."
+
+It was true. We should be liable as pirates in any port in Christendom.
+
+"Men," said Roger coolly, "there's no denying that in the eyes of the law
+we'd be pirates as well as mutineers. But if we can take the ship and sail
+it back to Salem, we'll be acquitted of any charge of mutiny or piracy, I
+can promise you. It'll be easy to ship a new crew at Canton, and we can
+settle affairs with the Websters' agents there so that at least we'll have
+a chance at a fair trial if we are taken on our homeward voyage. Shall we
+venture it?"
+
+The cook rolled his eyes. "Gimme dat yeh Kipping!" he cried, and with a
+savage cackle he swung his cleaver.
+
+"Falk for me, curse him!" Davie Paine muttered with a neat that surprised
+me. I had not realized that emotions as well as thoughts developed so
+slowly in Davie's big, leisurely frame that he now was just coming to the
+fullness of his wrath at the indignities he had undergone.
+
+Turning to the native chief, Roger cried, "We're with you!" And he
+extended his hand to seal the bargain.
+
+Of course the man could not understand the words but in the nods we had
+exchanged and in the cook's fierce glee, he had read our consent, and he
+laughed and talked with the others, who laughed, too, and pointed at
+Roger's pistol and cried, "Pom-pom!" and at the cook's cleaver and cried,
+"Whish!"
+
+When by signs Roger indicated that we needed sleep the chief issued orders,
+and half a dozen natives led us to a hut that seemed to be set apart for
+our use. But although we were nearly perishing with fatigue, they urged by
+signs that we follow them, and so insistent were they that we reluctantly
+obeyed.
+
+Climbing a little hill beyond the village, we came to a cleared spot
+surrounded by bushes through which we looked across between the mountains
+to where we could just see the open ocean. There, not three miles away, the
+Island Princess rode at anchor.
+
+I remember thinking, as I fell asleep, of the chance that Falk and Kipping
+would sail away before it was dark enough to attack them, and I spoke of it
+to Roger and the others, who shared my fear; but when our savage hosts
+wakened us, we knew by their eagerness that the ship still lay at her
+anchor. Why she remained, we could not agree. We hazarded a score of
+conjectures and debated them with lively interest.
+
+Presently the natives brought us rice and sago-bread and peas.
+
+As I ate and looked out into the darkness where fires were twinkling, I
+wondered which was the light I had seen that night when I watched from the
+summit of the headland.
+
+Though a gentle rain was falling, the whole village was alive with people.
+Men armed with spears and krises squatted in all parts of the hut. Boys
+came and went in the narrow circle of light. Women and girls looked from
+the door and from the farthest corners. Now and then some one would point
+at Roger's pistol and cry, "Pom-pom!" or, to the pride and delight of the
+cook, point at the cleaver and cry, "Whish!" and laugh loudly.
+
+Even black Frank had got over his terror of having natives come up without
+warning and feel of his arm or his woolly head, though he muttered
+doubtfully, "Ah ain't sayin' as Ah likes it. Dah's su'thin' so kind of
+hongry de way dey comes munchin' an' proddin' round dis yeh ol' niggeh."
+
+At midnight we went out into the dark and the rain, and followed single
+file after our leader along a narrow path that led through dripping ferns
+and pools of mud and water, over roots and rocks, and under low branches,
+which time and again swung back and struck our faces.
+
+We were drenched to the skin when we came at last to a sluggish, black
+little stream, which ran slowly under thick overhanging trees, and in other
+circumstances we should have been an unhappy and rebellious crew. But now
+the spell of adventure was upon us. Our savage guides moved silently and
+surely, and the forest was so mysterious and strange that I found its
+allurement all but irresistible. The slow, silent stream, on which now and
+then lights as faint and elusive as wisps of cloud played fitfully,
+reflected from I knew not where, had a fascination that I am sure the
+others felt as strongly as I. So we followed in silence and watched all
+that the dense blackness of the night let us see.
+
+Now the natives launched canoes, which slipped out on the water and lay
+side by side in the stream. Roger and Neddie Benson got into one; Blodgett
+and Davie Paine another; the cook and I into a third, Whatever thoughts or
+plans we six might have, we could not express them to the natives, and we
+were too widely separated to put them into practice ourselves. We could
+only join in the fight with good-will when the time came, and I assure you,
+the thought made me very nervous indeed. Also, I now realized that the
+natives had taken no chance of treachery on our part: _behind each of us
+sat an armed man_.
+
+The canoes shot ahead so swiftly under the pressure of the paddles that
+they seemed actually to have come to life. But they moved as noiselessly as
+shadows. We glided down the stream and out in a long line into a little
+bay, where we gathered, evidently to arrange the last details of the
+attack. I heard Roger say in a low voice, "We'll reach the ship about three
+bells and there couldn't be a better hour." Then, with a few low words of
+command from the native chief, we spread out again into an irregular,
+swiftly moving fleet, and swept away from the shore.
+
+As I looked back at the island I could see nothing, for the cloudy sky and
+the drizzly rain completely obscured every object beyond a limited circle
+of water; but as I looked ahead, my heart leaped and my breath came
+quickly. We had passed the farthest point of land and there, dimly in the
+offing, shone a single blurred light, which I knew was on the Island
+Princess.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+WE ATTACK
+
+
+In the darkness and rain we soon lost sight even of those nearest us on
+each side, but we knew by the occasional almost imperceptible whisper of a
+paddle in the water, or by the faintest murmur of speech, that the others
+were keeping pace with us.
+
+To this day I do not understand how the paddlers maintained the proper
+intervals in our line of attack; yet maintain them they did, by some means
+or other, according to a preconcerted plan, for we advanced without hurry
+or hesitation.
+
+Approaching the ship more closely, we made out the rigging, which the soft
+yellow light of the lantern dimly revealed. We saw, too, a single dark
+figure leaning on the taffrail, which became clear as we drew nearer. I was
+surprised to perceive that we had come up astern of the ship--quite without
+reason I had expected to find her lying bow on. Now we rode the gentle
+swell without sound or motion. The slow paddles held us in the same place
+with regard to the ship, and minutes passed in which my nervousness rose to
+such a pitch that I felt as if I must scream or clap my hands simply to
+shatter that oppressive, tantalizing, almost unendurable silence. But when
+I started to turn and whisper to the cook, something sharp and cold pricked
+through the back of my shirt and touched my skin, and from that time on I
+sat as still as a wooden figurehead.
+
+After a short interval I made out other craft drawing in on our right and
+left, and I later learned that, while we waited, the canoes were forming
+about the ship a circle of hostile spears. But it then seemed at every
+moment as if the man who was leaning on the taffrail must espy us,--it
+always is hard for the person in the dark, who sees what is near the light,
+to realize that he himself remains invisible,--and a thousand fears swept
+over me.
+
+There came now from somewhere on our right a whisper no louder than a
+mouse's hiss of warning or of threat. I scarcely was aware of it. It might
+have been a ripple under the prow of the canoe, a slightest turn of a
+paddle. Yet it conveyed a message that the natives instantly understood.
+The man just behind me repeated it so softly that his repetition was
+scarcely audible, even to me who sat so near that I could feel his breath,
+and at once the canoe seemed silently to stir with life. Inch by inch we
+floated forward, until I could see clearly the hat and coat-collar of the
+man who was leaning against the rail. It was Kipping.
+
+From forward came the cautious voices of the watch. The light revealed the
+masts and rigging of the ship for forty or fifty feet from the deck, but
+beyond the cross-jack yard all was hazy, and the cabin seemed in the odd
+shadows twice its real size. I wondered if Falk were asleep, too, or if we
+should come on him sitting up in the cabin, busy with his books and charts.
+I wondered who was in the galley, where I saw a light; who was standing
+watch; who was asleep below. Still we moved noiselessly on under the stern
+of the ship, until I almost could have put my hands on the carved letters,
+"Island Princess."
+
+Besides things on deck, the light also revealed our own attacking party.
+The man in front of me had laid his paddle in the bottom of the canoe and
+held a spear across his knees. In the boat on our right were five natives
+armed with spears and krises; in the one on our left, four. Beyond the
+craft nearest to us I could see others less distinctly--silent shadows on
+the water, each with her head toward our prey, like a school of giant fish.
+In the lee of the ship, the pinnace floated at the end of its painter.
+
+Still the watch forward talked on in low, monotonous voices; still Kipping
+leaned on the rail, his head bent, his arms folded, to all appearances fast
+asleep.
+
+I had now forgotten my fears. I was keenly impatient for the word to
+attack.
+
+A shrill wailing cry suddenly burst on the night air. The man in front of
+me, holding his spear above his head with one hand, made a prodigious leap
+from the boat, caught the planking with his fingers, got toe-hold on a
+stern-port, and went up over the rail like a wild beast. With knives
+between their teeth, men from the proas on my right and left boarded the
+ship by the chains, by the rail, by the bulwark.
+
+I saw Kipping leap suddenly forward and whirl about like a weasel in his
+tracks. His yell for all hands sounded high above the clamor of the
+boarders. Then some one jabbed the butt of a spear into my back and,
+realizing that mine was not to be a spectator's part in that weird battle,
+I scrambled up the stern as best I could.
+
+The watch on deck, I instantly saw, had backed against the forecastle where
+the watch below was joining it. Captain Falk and some one else, of whose
+identity I could not be sure, rushed armed from the cabin. Then a missile
+crashed through the lantern, and in the darkness I heard sea-boots banging
+on the deck as those aft raced forward to join the crew.
+
+I clambered aboard, waving my arms and shouting; then I stood and listened
+to the chorus of yells fore and aft, the _slip-slip-slip_ of bare feet, the
+thud of boots as the Americans ran this way and that. I sometimes since
+have wondered how I escaped death in that wild mêlée in the darkness.
+Certainly I was preserved by no effort of my own, for not knowing which way
+to turn, ignored by friend and foe alike, almost stunned by the terrible
+sounds that rose on every side, I simply clutched the rail and was as
+unlike the hero that my silly dreams had made me out to be--never had I
+dreamed of such a night!--as is every half-grown lad who stands side by
+side with violent death.
+
+Of Kipping I now saw nothing, but as a light momentarily flared up, I
+caught a glimpse of Captain Falk and his party sidling along back to back,
+fighting off their assailants while they struggled to launch a boat. Time
+and time again I heard the spiteful crack of their guns and their oaths and
+exclamations. Presently I also heard another sound that made my heart
+throb; a man was moaning as if in great pain.
+
+Then another cried, with an oath, "They've got me! O Tom, haul out that
+spear!" A scream followed and then silence.
+
+Some one very near me, who as yet was unaware of my presence, said, "He's
+dead."
+
+"Look out!" cried another. "See! There behind you!"
+
+I was startled and instinctively dodged back. There was a crashing report
+in my face; the flame of a musket singed my brows and hair, and powder
+stung my skin. Then, as the man clubbed his gun, I dashed under his guard,
+scarcely aware of the pain in my shoulder, and locking my right heel behind
+his left, threw him hard to the deck, where we slipped and slid in a warm
+slippery stream that was trickling across the planks.
+
+Back and forth we rolled, neither of us daring to give the other a moment's
+breathing-space in which to draw knife or pistol; and all the time the
+fight went on over our heads. I now heard Roger crying to the rest of us to
+stand by. I heard what I supposed to be his pistol replying smartly to the
+fire from Falk's party, and wondered where in that scene of violence he had
+got powder and an opportunity to load. But for the most part I was rolling
+and struggling on the slippery deck.
+
+When some one lighted a torch and the flame flared up and revealed the grim
+scene, I saw that Falk and his remaining men were trying at the same time
+to stand off the enemy and to scramble over the bulwark, and I realized
+that they must have drawn up the pinnace. But I had only the briefest
+glimpse of what was happening, for I was in deadly terror every minute lest
+my antagonist thrust a knife between my ribs. I could hear him gasping now
+as he strove to close his hands on my throat, and for a moment I thought he
+had me; but I twisted away, got half on my knees with him under me, sprang
+to my feet, then slipped once more on the slow stream across the planks,
+and fell heavily.
+
+In that moment I had seen by torchlight that the pinnace was clear of the
+ship and that the men with their guns and spikes were holding off the
+natives. I had seen, too, a spear flash across the space of open water and
+cut down one of the men. But already my adversary was at me again, and with
+his two calloused hands he once more was gripping my throat. I exerted all
+my strength to keep from being throttled. I tried to scream, but could only
+gurgle. His head danced before me and seemed to swing in circles. I felt
+myself losing strength. I rallied desperately, only to be thrown.
+
+Then, suddenly, I realized that he had let me go and had sat down beside me
+breathing heavily. It was the man from Boston whose nose had been broken.
+He eyed me curiously as if an idea had come upon him by surprise.
+
+"I didn't go to fight so hard, mate," he gasped, "but you did act so kind
+of vicious that I just had to."
+
+"You what?" I exclaimed, not believing my ears.
+
+"It's the only way I had to come over to your side," he said with a
+whimper. "Falk would 'a' killed me if I'd just up an' come, though I wanted
+to, honest I did."
+
+I put my hand on my throbbing shoulder, and stared at him incredulously.
+
+"You don't need to look at me like that," he sniveled. "Didn't I stand by
+Bill Hayden to the last along with you? Ain't I human? Ain't I got as much
+appreciation as any man of what it means to have a murderin' pair of
+officers like Captain Falk and Mr. Kipping? You don't suppose, do you, that
+I'd stay by 'em without I had to?"
+
+I was somewhat impressed by his argument, and he, perceiving it, continued
+vehemently, "I _had_ to fight with you. They'd 'a' killed you, too, if I
+hadn't."
+
+There was truth in that. Unquestionably they would have shot me down
+without hesitation if we two had not grappled in such a lively tussle that
+they could not hit one without hitting the other.
+
+We got up and leaned on the bulwark and looked down at the boat, which rode
+easily on the slow, oily swell. There in the stern-sheets the torchlight
+now revealed Falk.
+
+"I'm lawful master of this vessel," he called back, looking up at the men
+who lined the side. "I'll see you hanged from the yard-arm yet, you
+white-livered wharf-rats, and you, too, you cabin-window popinjay!"--I knew
+that he meant me.--"There'll come a day, by God! There'll come a day!"
+
+The men in the boat gave way, and it disappeared in the darkness and mist,
+its sides bristling with weapons.
+
+But still Falk's voice came back to us shrilly, "I'll see you yet a-hanging
+by your necks," until at last we could only hear him cursing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+WHAT WE FOUND IN THE CABIN
+
+
+Now some one called, "Ben! Ben Lathrop! Where are you?"
+
+"Here I am," I cried as loudly as I could.
+
+"Well, Ben, what's this? Are you wounded?"
+
+It was Roger, and when he saw with whom I was talking he smiled.
+
+"Well, Bennie," he cried, "so we've got a prisoner, have we?"
+
+"No, sir," whimpered the man from Boston, "not a prisoner. I come over, I
+did."
+
+"You what?"
+
+"I come over--to your side, sir."
+
+"How about it, Ben?"
+
+"Why, so he says. We were having a pretty hard wrestling match, but he says
+it was to cover up his escape from the other party."
+
+"How was I to get away, sir, if I didn't have a subterfoog," the prisoner
+interposed eagerly. "I _had_ to wrastle. If I hadn't have, they'd 'a' shot
+me down as sure as duff on Sunday."
+
+For my own part I was not yet convinced of his good faith. He had gripped
+my throat quite too vindictively. To this very day, when I close my eyes I
+can feel his hard fingers clenched about my windpipe and his knees forcing
+my arms down on the bloody deck. He had let me go, too, only when we both
+knew that Captain Falk and his men had put off from the ship. It seemed
+very much as if he were trying to make the best of a bad bargain. But if,
+on the other hand, he was entirely sincere in his protestations, it might
+well be true that he did not dare come over openly to our side. The problem
+had so many faces that it fairly made me dizzy, so I abandoned it and tore
+open my clothes to examine the flesh wound on my shoulder.
+
+"Ay," I thought, when I saw where the musket-ball had cut me at close
+range, "that was a friendly shot, was it not?"
+
+Roger himself was not yet willing to let the matter fall so readily. His
+sharp questions stirred the man from Boston to one uneasy denial after
+another.
+
+"But I tell you, sir, I come over as quick as I could."
+
+Again Roger spoke caustically.
+
+"But I tell you, sir, I did. And what's more, I can tell you a lot of
+things you'd like to know. Perhaps you'd like to know--" He stopped short.
+
+Roger regarded him as if in doubt, but presently he said in a low voice,
+"All right! Say nothing of this to the others. I'll see you later."
+
+Captain Falk and his crew, meanwhile, had moved away almost unmolested.
+Their pikes and guns had held off the few natives who made a show of
+pursuing them, and the great majority of our allies were running riot on
+the ship, which was a sad sight when we turned to take account of the
+situation.
+
+Three natives were killed and two were wounded, not to mention my injured
+shoulder among our own casualties; and two members of the other party in
+the crew were sprawled in grotesque attitudes on the deck. Counting the one
+who was hit by a spear and who had fallen out of the boat, it meant that
+Falk had lost three dead, and if blood on the deck was any sign, others
+must have been badly slashed. In other words, our party was, numerically,
+almost the equal of his. Considering the man from Boston as on our side, we
+were seven to their eight. The lantern that we now lighted revealed more of
+the gruesome spectacle, and it made me feel sick to see that both the man
+from Boston and I were covered from head to foot with the gore in which we
+had been rolling; but to the natives the sight was a stupendous triumph;
+and the cook, when I next saw him, was walking down the deck, looking at
+the face of one dead man after another.
+
+By and by he came to me where, overcome by a wave of nausea, I had sat down
+on the deck with my back against the bulwark. "Dey ain't none of 'em
+Kipping," he said grimly. Then he saw my bleeding shoulder and instantly
+got down beside me. "You jest let dis yeh ol' nigger took a hand," he
+cried. "Ah's gwine fix you all up. You jest come along o' me!" And helping
+me to my feet, he led me to the galley, where once more he was supreme and
+lawful master.
+
+In no time at all he had a kettle of water on the stove, in which the coals
+of a good fire still lingered, and with a clean cloth he washed my wound so
+gently that I scarcely could believe his great, coarse hands were actually
+at work on me. "Dah you is," he murmured, bending over the red, shallow
+gash that the bullet had cut, "dah you is. Don' you fret. Ah's gwine git
+you all tied up clean an' han'some, yass, sah."
+
+The yells and cries of every description alarmed and agitated us both. It
+was far from reassuring to know that that mob of natives was ranging the
+ship at will.
+
+"Ef you was to ask me," Frank muttered, rolling his eyes till the whites
+gleamed starkly, "Ah's gwine tell you dis yeh ship is sottin', so to speak,
+on a bar'l of gunpowder. Yass, sah!"
+
+An islander uttered a shrill catcall just outside the galley and thrust his
+head and half his naked body in the door. He vanished again almost
+instantly, but Frank jumped and upset the kettle. "Yass, sah, you creepy
+ol' sarpint," he gasped. "Yass, sah, we's sottin' on a bar'l of gunpowder."
+
+I am convinced, as I look back on that night from the pinnacle of more than
+half a century, that not one man in ten thousand has ever spent one like
+it. Allied with a horde whose language we could not speak, we had boarded
+our own ship and now--mutineers, pirates, or loyal mariners, according to
+your point of view--we shared her possession with a mob of howling heathens
+whose goodwill depended on the whim of the moment, and who might at any
+minute, by slaughtering us out of hand, get for their own godless purposes
+the ship and all that was in her.
+
+The cook cautiously fingered the keen edge of his cleaver as we looked out
+and saw that dawn was brightening in the east.
+
+"Dat Falk, he say he gwine git us yet," the cook muttered. "Maybe so--maybe
+not. Maybe we ain't gwine last as long as dat."
+
+"All hands aft!"
+
+Frank and I looked at each other. The galley was as safe and comfortable as
+any place aboard ship and we were reluctant to leave it.
+
+"_All hands aft!_" came the call again.
+
+"Ah reckon," Frank said thoughtfully, "me and you better be gwine. When
+Mistah Hamlin he holler like dat, he want us."
+
+Light had come with amazing swiftness, and already we could see the deck
+from stem to stern without help of the torches, which still flamed and sent
+thin streamers of smoke drifting into the mist.
+
+As we emerged from the galley, I noticed that the after-hatch was half
+open. That in itself did not surprise me; stranger things than that had
+come to pass in the last hour or two; but when some one cautiously emerged
+from the hold, with a quick, sly glance at those on the quarter-deck, I'll
+confess that I was surprised. It was the man from Boston.
+
+Smiling broadly and turning his black rat-like eyes this way and that, the
+chief of our wild allies, who held a naked kris from which drops of blood
+were falling, stood beside Roger. Blodgett was at the wheel, nervously
+fingering the spokes; Neddie Benson stood behind him, obviously ill at
+ease, and Davie Paine, who had got from the cabin what few of his things
+were left there, to take them forward, was a little at one side. But the
+natives were swarming everywhere, aloft and alow, and we knew only too well
+that no small movable object would escape their thieving fingers.
+
+"Ef on'y dem yeh heathen don't took to butcherin'!" the cook muttered.
+
+The prophetic words were scarcely spoken when what we most feared came to
+pass. One of the islanders, by accident or design, bumped into Blodgett,--
+always erratic, never to be relied on in a crisis,--who, turning without a
+thought of the consequences, struck the man with his fist a blow that
+floored him, and flashed out his knife.
+
+That single spark threatened an explosion that would annihilate us. Spears
+enclosed us from all sides; krises leaped at our throats.
+
+"Come on, lads! Stand together," Blodgett shrieked.
+
+With a yell of terror the cook sprang to join the others, and bellowing in
+panic, swung his cleaver wildly.
+
+The man from Boston and Neddie Benson shrank back against the taffrail as a
+multitude of moving brown figures seemed to swarm about us. Then I saw
+Roger leap forward, his arms high in air, his hands extended.
+
+"Get back!" he cried, glancing at us over his shoulders.
+
+As all stopped and stared at him, he coolly turned to the chief and handed
+him his pistol, butt foremost. Was Roger mad, I wondered? He was the sanest
+man of all our crew. The chief gravely took the proffered weapon and looked
+at Blodgett, whose face was contorted with fear, and at the Malay, who by
+now was sitting up on deck blinking about him in a dazed way. Then he
+smiled and raised his hand and the points of the weapons fell.
+
+In truth I was nearly mad myself, for now it all struck me as funny and I
+laughed until I cried, and all the others looked at me, and soon the
+natives began to point and laugh themselves. I suppose I was hysterical,
+but it created a diversion and helped to save the day; and Neddie Benson
+and the man from Boston, whom Roger had sent below, returned soon with
+bolts of cloth and knives and pistols and threw them in a heap on the
+quarter-deck.
+
+Some word that I suppose meant gifts, went from lip to lip and our allies
+eagerly crowded around us.
+
+"Get behind me, men," Roger said in an undertone. "Whatever happens, guard
+the companionway. I think we're safe, but since by grace of Providence
+we're all here together, we'll take no chances that we can avoid."
+
+The first rays of sunlight shone on the heap of bright stuffs and polished
+metal, but the sun itself was no brighter than the face of the chief when
+Roger draped over him a length of bright cloth and presented him with a
+handsome knife. He threw back his head, laughing aloud, and strutted across
+the deck. Turning in grave farewell, he grasped his booty with one arm and,
+after a few sharp words to his men, swung himself down by the chains with
+the other. To man after man we gave gaudy cloths or knives or, when all
+the knives were given away, a cutlass or a gun; and when at last the only
+canoes in sight were speeding toward shore like comets with tails of red
+flannel and purple calico, we breathed deeply our relief.
+
+"Now, men," said Roger, "we have a hard morning's work in front of us.
+Cook, break out a cask of beef and a cask of bread, and get us something to
+eat. Davie, you stand watch and keep your eye out either for a native canoe
+or for any sign of Falk or his party. The rest of you--all except Lathrop--
+wash down the deck and sew those bodies up in a piece of old sail with
+plenty of ballast. Ben, you and I have a little job in front of us. Come
+into the cabin with me."
+
+I gladly followed him. He was as composed as if battle and death were all
+in the routine of a day at sea, and I was full of admiration for his
+coolness and courage.
+
+The cabin was in complete disorder, but comparatively few things had been
+stolen. Apparently not many of the natives had found their way thither.
+
+"Fortunately," Roger said, unlocking Captain Whidden's chest of which he
+had the key, "they've left the spare quadrant. We have instruments to
+navigate with, so, when all's said and done, I suppose we're lucky."
+
+He closed the chest and locked it again; then he took from his pocket a
+second key. "Benny, my lad," he said, "let's have a look at that one
+hundred thousand dollars in gold."
+
+Going into the captain's stateroom, we shut the door and knelt beside the
+iron safe. The key turned with difficulty.
+
+"It needs oil," Roger muttered, as he worked over it. "It turns as hard as
+if some one has been tinkering with it." By using both hands he forced it
+round and opened the door.
+
+The safe was empty.
+
+[Illustration: ]
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+IN WHICH WE REACH THE PORT OF OUR DESTINATION
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+FALK PROPOSES A TRUCE
+
+
+As we faced each other in amazed silence, we could hear the men working on
+deck and the sea rippling against the hull of the ship. I felt that strange
+sensation of mingled reality and unreality which comes sometimes in dreams,
+and I rather think that Roger felt it, too, for we turned simultaneously to
+look again into the iron safe. But again only its painted walls met our
+eyes.
+
+The gold actually was gone.
+
+Roger started up. "Now how did Falk manage that?" he cried. "I swear he
+hadn't time to open the safe. We took them absolutely by surprise--I could
+swear we did."
+
+I suggested that he might have hidden it somewhere else.
+
+"Not he," said Roger.
+
+"Would Kipping steal from Captain Falk?"
+
+"From Captain Falk!" Roger exclaimed. "If his mother were starving, he'd
+steal her last crust. How about the bunk?"
+
+We took the bunk apart and ripped open the mattress. We sounded the
+woodwork above and below. With knives we slit the cushion of Captain
+Whidden's great arm-chair, and pulled out the curled hair that stuffed it.
+We ransacked box, bag, cuddy, and stove; we forced our way into every
+corner of the cabin and the staterooms. But we found no trace of the lost
+money.
+
+It seemed like sacrilege to disturb little things that once had belonged
+to that upright gentleman, Captain Joseph Whidden. His pipe, his
+memorandum-book, and his pearl-handled penknife recalled him to my mind as
+I had seen him so many times of old, sitting in my father's drawing-room,
+with his hands folded on his knee and his firm mouth bent in a whimsical
+smile. I thought of my parents, of my sister and Roger, of all the old
+far-away life of Salem; I must have stood dreaming thus a long time when my
+eyes fell on Nathan Falk's blue coat, which he had thrown carelessly on the
+cabin table and had left there, and with a burst of anger I came back to
+affairs of the moment.
+
+"They've got it away, Benny," said Roger, soberly. "How or when I don't
+know, but there's no question that it's gone from the cabin. Come, let's
+clear away the disorder."
+
+As well as we could we put back the numerous things we had thrown about,
+and such litter as we could not replace we swept up. But wisps of hair
+still lay on the tables and the chairs, and feathers floated in the air
+like thistle-down. We had little time for housewifery.
+
+We found the others gathered round the galley, eating a hearty meal of salt
+beef, ship's bread, and coffee, at which we were right glad to join them.
+Roger had a way with the men that kept them from taking liberties, yet that
+enabled him to mingle with them on terms far more familiar than those of a
+ship's officer. I watched him as he sat down by Davie Paine, and grinned at
+the cook, and asked Neddie Benson how his courage was and laughed heartily
+at Blodgett who had spilled a cup of coffee down his shirt-front--yet in
+such a way that Blodgett was pleased by his friendliness rather than
+offended by his amusement. I suppose it was what we call "personality."
+Certainly Roger was a born leader. After our many difficulties we felt so
+jolly and so much at home,--all, that is, except the man from Boston, who
+sat apart from the rest and stared soberly across the long, slow seas,--
+that our little party on deck was merrier by far than many a Salem
+merrymaking before or since.
+
+I knew that Roger was deeply troubled by the loss of the money and I
+marveled at his self-control.
+
+Presently I saw something moving off the eastern point of the island.
+Thinking little of it, I watched it idly until suddenly it burst upon me
+that it was a ship's boat. With a start I woke from my dream and shouted,
+"Sail ho! Off the starboard bow!"
+
+In an instant our men were on their feet, staring at the newcomer. In all
+the monotonous expanse of shining, silent ocean only the boat and the
+island and the tiny sails of a junk which lay hull down miles away, were to
+be seen. But the boat, which now had rounded the point, was approaching
+steadily.
+
+"Ben, lay below to the cabin and fetch up muskets, powder, and balls,"
+Roger cried sharply. "Lend a hand, Davie, and bring back all the pikes and
+cutlasses you can carry. You, cook, clear away the stern-chasers and stand
+by to load them the minute the powder's up the companionway. Blodgett, you
+do the same by the long gun. You, Neddie, bear a hand with me to trice up
+the netting!"
+
+Spilling food, cups, pans, and kids in confusion on the deck, we sprang to
+do as we were bid. In the sternsheets of the approaching boat we could make
+out at a distance the slim form of Captain Nathan Falk.
+
+The rain had stopped long since, and the hot sun shining from a cloudless
+sky was rapidly burning off the last vestige of the night mist as Captain
+Falk's boat came slowly toward us under a white flag. A ground-swell gave
+it a leisurely motion and the men approached so cautiously that their oars
+seemed scarcely more than to dip in and out of the water.
+
+With double-charged cannon, with loaded muskets ready at hand, and with
+pikes and cutlasses laid out on deck, one for each man, where we could
+snatch them up as soon as we had spent our first fire, we grinned from
+behind the nettings at our erstwhile shipmates. Tables had turned with a
+vengeance since we had rowed away from the ship so short a time before.
+They now were a sad-looking lot of men, some of them with bandages on their
+limbs or round their heads, all of them disheveled, weary, and unkempt. But
+they approached with an air of dignity, which Falk tried to keep up by
+calling with a grand fling of his hand and his head, "Mr. Hamlin, we come
+to parley under a flag of truce."
+
+I think we really were impressed for a moment. His face was pale, and he
+had a blood-stained rag tied round his forehead, so that he looked very
+much as if he were a wounded hero returning after a brave fight to arrange
+terms of an honorable peace. But the cook, who heartily disapproved of
+admitting the boat within gunshot, shattered any such illusion that we may
+have entertained.
+
+"Mah golly!" he exclaimed in a voice audible to every man in both parties,
+"ef dey ain't done h'ist up cap'n's unde'-clothes foh a flag of truce!"
+
+The remark came upon us so suddenly and we were all so keyed up that,
+although it seems flat enough to tell about it now, then it struck us as
+irresistibly funny and we laughed until tears started from our eyes. I
+heard Blodgett's cat-yowl of glee, Davie Paine's deep guffaw, Neddie
+Benson's shrill cackle of delight. But when, to clear my eyes, I wiped away
+my tears, the men in the other boat were glaring at us in glum and angry
+silence.
+
+"Ah, it's funny is it?" said Falk, and his voice me think of the times when
+he had abused Bill Hayden. "Laugh, curse you, laugh! Well, that's all
+right. There's no law against laughing. I've got a proposition to put up to
+you. You've had your little fling and a costly one it's like to be. You've
+mutinied and unlawfully confined the master of the ship, and for that
+you're liable for a fine of one thousand dollars and five years in prison.
+You've usurped the command of a vessel on the high seas unlawfully and by
+force, and for that you're liable to a fine of two thousand dollars and ten
+years in prison. Think about that, some o' you men that haven't a hundred
+dollars in the world. The law'll strip and break you. But if that ain't
+enough, we've got evidence to convict you in every court of the United
+States of America of being pirates, felons, and robbers, and the punishment
+for that is death. Think of that, you men."
+
+Falk lowered his head until his red scarf, which he had knotted about his
+throat, made the ghastly pallor of his face seem even more chalky than it
+was, and thrust his chin forward and leveled at us the index finger of his
+right hand. The slowly rolling boat was so near us now that as we waited to
+see what he would say next we could see his hand tremble.
+
+"Now, men," he continued, "you've had your little fling, and that's the
+price you'll have to pay the piper. I'll get you, never you fear. Ah, by
+the good Lord's help, I'll see you swinging from a frigate's yard-arm yet,
+unless"--he stopped and glared at us significantly--"unless you do like I'm
+going to tell you.
+
+"You've had your fling and there's a bad day of reckoning coming to you,
+don't you forget it. But if you drop all this nonsense now, and go forward
+where you belong and work the ship like good seamen and swear on the Book
+to have no more mutinous talk, I'll forgive you everything and see that no
+one prosecutes you for all you've done so far. How about it? Nothing could
+be handsomer than that."
+
+"Oh, you always was a smooth-tongued scoundrel" Blodgett, just behind me,
+murmured under his breath.
+
+The men in the two parties looked at each other in silence for a moment,
+and if ever I had distrusted Captain Falk, I distrusted him four times more
+when I saw the mild, sleek smile on Kipping's face. It was reassuring to
+see the gleam in black Frank's eyes as he fingered the edge of his cleaver.
+
+I turned eagerly to Roger, upon whom we waited unanimously for a reply.
+
+"Yes, that's very handsome of you," he said reflectively. "But how do we
+know you'll do all that you promise?"
+
+Falk's white face momentarily lighted. I thought that for an instant his
+eyes shone like a tiger's. But he answered quietly, "Ain't my word good?"
+
+"Why, a _gentleman's_ word is always good security."
+
+There was just enough accent on the word "gentleman" to puzzle me. The
+remark sounded innocent enough, certainly, and yet the stress--if stress
+was intended--made it biting sarcasm. Obviously the men in the boat were
+equally in doubt whether to take offense or to accept the statement in good
+faith.
+
+"Well, you have my word," said Falk at last.
+
+
+"Yes, we have your word. But there's one other thing to be settled. How
+about the owners' money?"
+
+For a moment Falk seemed disconcerted, and I, thinking now that Roger was
+merely badgering him, smiled with satisfaction. But Falk answered the
+question after only brief hesitation, and Roger's next words plunged me
+deep in a sea of doubt.
+
+"Why, I shall guard the owners' money with all possible care, Mr. Hamlin,
+and expend it in their best interests," said Falk.
+
+"If that's the case," said Roger, "come alongside."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+INCLUDING A CROSS-EXAMINATION
+
+
+Falk tried, I was certain, to conceal a smile of joy at Roger's simplicity,
+and I saw that others in the boat were averting their faces. Also I saw
+that they were shifting their weapons to have them more readily available.
+
+Our own men, on the contrary, were remonstrating audibly, and to my lasting
+shame I joined them.
+
+A queer expression appeared on Roger's face and he looked at us as if
+incredulous. I suddenly perceived that our rebellious attitude hurt him
+bitterly. He had led us so bravely through all our recent difficulties! And
+now, when success seemed assured, we manifested in return doubt and
+disloyalty! I literally hung my head. The others were abashed and silent,
+but I knew that my own defection was more contemptible by far than theirs,
+and had Roger reproached me sharply, I might have felt better for it.
+Instead, he spoke without haste or anger in a voice pitched so low that
+Falk could not possibly overhear him.
+
+"We simply _have_ to hold together, men. All to the gangway, now, and stand
+by for orders."
+
+That was all he said, but it was enough. Thoroughly ashamed of ourselves,
+we followed him to the gangway whither the boat was coming slowly.
+
+Roger assumed an air of neutral welcome as he reached for the bow of the
+pinnace; but to us behind him he whispered sharply, "Stand ready, all
+hands, with muskets and pikes."
+
+"Now, then, Captain Falk," he cried, "hand over the money first. We'll stow
+it safe on board."
+
+"Come, come," Falk replied. "Belay that talk." He was
+standing ready to climb on deck.
+
+"The money first," said Roger coolly.
+
+Suddenly he tried to hook the bow of the pinnace, but missed it as the
+pinnace dipped in the trough.
+
+The rest of us, waiting breathlessly, for the first time comprehended
+Roger's strategy.
+
+Falk looked up at him angrily. "That'll get you nowhere," he retorted.
+"Come, stand away, or so help me, I'll see you hanged anyhow."
+
+Roger smiled at him coldly. "The word of a gentleman? The money first,
+Captain Falk."
+
+"Well, if you are so stupid that you haven't discovered the truth yet, I
+haven't the money."
+
+"Where is the money?"
+
+"In the safe in the cabin, as you very well know," replied Falk.
+
+"You lie!" Roger responded.
+
+With a ripping oath, Captain Falk whipped out his pistol.
+
+"You lie!" Roger cried again, hotly. "Put down that pistol or I'll blow you
+to hell. Stand by, boys. We'll show them!"
+
+Though we were fewer than they, we had them at a tremendous disadvantage,
+for we were protected by the bulwarks and could pour our musket-fire into
+the open boat at will, and in a battle of cutlasses and pikes our advantage
+would be even greater.
+
+"Don't a flag of truce give us no protection?" Kipping asked in that
+accursedly mild voice--I could not hear it without thinking of poor Bill
+Hayden, and to the others, they told me later, it brought the same bitter
+memory.
+
+
+"How long since Cap'n Falk's ol' unde' shirt done be a p'tection?" muttered
+the cook grimly.
+
+"Yes, laugh! Laugh, you black baboon! Laugh, you silly little fool,
+Lathrop!" Falk yelled. "I'll have you laughing another time one of these
+days. Give way men! We'll have out their haslets yet."
+
+A hundred feet from the ship, the men rested on their oars, and Falk put on
+a very different manner. "Roger Hamlin," he cried, "you ain't going to send
+us away, are you?"
+
+I was astounded. As long as I had known Falk, I had never realized how many
+different faces the man could assume at the shortest notice. But Roger
+seemed not at all surprised. "Yes," he said, shortly, "we're going to send
+you away, you black-hearted scoundrel."
+
+"Good God! We'll perish!"
+
+Although obvious retorts were many, Roger made no reply.
+
+Now Kipping spoke up mildly and innocently:--
+
+"What'll we do? We can't land--the Malays was waiting for us on shore with
+knives, all ready to cut our throats. We can't go to sea like this. What'll
+we do?"
+
+"Supposing," cried old Blodgett, sarcastically, "supposing you row back to
+Salem. It's only three thousand miles or more. You'll find it a pleasant
+voyage, I'm sure, and you'd ought to run into enough Ladronesers and Malays
+to make it interesting along the way."
+
+"Ain't we human?" Kipping whined, as if trying to wring pity from even
+Blodgett. "Ain't you going at least to give us a keg o' water and some
+bread?"
+
+"If you're not out of gunshot in five minutes," Roger cried, "I'll train
+the long gun and blow you clean out of water."
+
+Without more ado they rowed slowly away, growing smaller and smaller, until
+at last they passed out of sight round the point.
+
+"Ah me," sighed Neddie Benson, "I'm glad they're gone. It's funny Falk
+ain't quite a light man nor yet a real dark man."
+
+"_Gone_!" Davie repeated ominously. "_I_ wish they was gone." He looked up
+at the furled sails. "They ain't--and neither is we."
+
+"There's work to be done," said Roger, "and we must be about it. Leave the
+nets as they are. Stack the muskets in the waist, pile the pikes handy by
+the deckhouse, and all lay aft. We'd best have a few words together before
+we begin."
+
+A moment later, as I was busy with the pikes, Roger came to me and
+murmured, "There's something wrong afoot. The after-hatch has been pried
+off."
+
+I noticed the hatch once more the next time I passed it, and I remembered
+seeing the man from Boston emerge from the hold. But there was so much else
+to be attended to that it was a long, long time before I thought of it
+again.
+
+When we had done as Roger told us, we gathered round him where he waited,
+leaning against the cabin, with his hands in his pockets.
+
+"We're all in the same boat together, men," he began. "We knew what the
+chances were when we took them. If you wish to have it so, in the eyes of
+the law we're pirates and mutineers, and since Falk seems to have got away
+with what money there was on board, things may go hard with us. _But_--" he
+spoke the word with stern emphasis--"_but_ we've acted for the best, and I
+think there's no one here wants to try to square things up by putting Falk
+in command again. How about it?"
+
+"Square things up, is it?" cried Blodgett. "The dirty villain would have us
+hanged at the nearest gallows for all his buttery words."
+
+"Exactly!" Roger threw back his head. "And when we get to Salem, I can
+promise you there's no man here but will be better off for doing as he's
+done so far."
+
+"But whar's all dat money gone?" the cook demanded unexpectedly.
+
+"I don't know," said Roger.
+
+"What! Ain' dat yeh money heah?"
+
+"No."
+
+At that moment my eye chanced to fall on the man from Boston, who was
+looking off at the island as if he had no interest whatever in our
+conversation. The circumstances under which he had stayed with us were so
+strange and his present preoccupation was so carefully assumed, that I was
+suddenly exceedingly suspicious of him, although when I came to examine the
+matter closely, I could find no very definite grounds for it.
+
+Blodgett was watching him, too, and I think that Roger followed our gaze
+for suddenly he cried, "You there!" in a voice that brought the man from
+Boston to his feet like the snap of a whip.
+
+"Yes, sir! Yes, sir!" he replied briskly.
+
+"What are you doing here, anyway?" Roger demanded. The fellow, who had
+begun to assume as many airs and as much self-confidence as if he had been
+one of our own party from the very first, was sadly disconcerted. "Why I
+come over to your side first chance I had," he replied with an aggrieved
+air.
+
+"What were you doing in the cabin when the natives were running all over
+the ship?"
+
+The five of us, startled by the quick, sharp questions, looked keenly at
+the man from Boston. But he, recovering his self-possession, replied coolly
+enough, "I was just a-keeping watch so they wouldn't steal--I kept them
+from running off with the quadrant."
+
+"Keeping watch so _nobody'd_ steal, I suppose," said Roger.
+
+"Yes, sir! Yes, sir! That's it exactly."
+
+Suddenly my mind leaped back to the night when Bill Hayden had died, and
+the man from Boston had made that cryptic remark, to which I called
+attention long since. "He said he could tell something, Roger," I burst
+out. But Roger silenced me with a glance.
+
+Turning on the fellow again, he said, "If I find that you are lying to me,
+I'll shoot you where you stand. What do you know about who killed Captain
+Whidden?"
+
+For once the fellow was taken completely off his guard. He glanced around
+as if he wished to run away, but there was no escape. He saw only hostile
+faces.
+
+"What do you know about who killed Captain Whidden?"
+
+"Mr. Kipping killed him," the fellow gasped, startled out of whatever
+reticence he may have intended to maintain. "Yes, sir! Yes, sir!"
+
+"Do you expect me to believe that Kipping shot the captain? If you lie to
+me--" Roger drew his pistol. By eyes and voice he held the man in a
+hypnosis of terror.
+
+"He did! I swear he did. Don't shoot me, sir! I'm telling you the very
+gospel truth. He cursed awful and said--don't point that pistol at me, sir!
+I swear I'll tell the truth!--'Mr. Thomas is as good as done for,' he said.
+'There's only one man between us and a hundred thousand dollars in gold.'
+And Falk--Kipping was talking to Falk low-like and didn't know I was
+anywhere about--and Falk says, 'No, that's too much.' Then he says,
+wild-like, 'Shoot--go on and shoot.' Then Kipping laughs and says, 'So
+you've got a little gumption, have you?' and he shot Captain Whidden and
+killed him. Don't point that pistol at _me_, sir! I didn't do it."
+
+Roger had managed the situation well. His sudden and entirely unexpected
+attack had got from the man a story that a month of ordinary
+cross-examinations might not have elicited; for although the fellow had
+volunteered to tell all he knew, his manner convinced me that under other
+circumstances he would have told no more than he had to. Also he had
+admitted being in the cabin while the natives were roaming over the ship!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+AN ATTEMPT TO PLAY ON OUR SYMPATHY
+
+
+For the time being we let the matter drop and, launching a quarter-boat for
+work around the ship, turned our attention to straightening out the rigging
+and the running gear so that we could get under way at the earliest
+possible moment. Twice natives came aboard, and a number of canoes now and
+then appeared in the distance; but we were left on the whole pretty much to
+our own devices, and we had great hopes of tripping anchor in a few hours
+at the latest.
+
+Roger meanwhile got out the quadrant and saw that it was adjusted to take
+an observation at the first opportunity; for there was no doubt that by
+faulty navigation or, more probably, by malicious intent, Falk had brought
+us far astray from the usual routes across the China Sea.
+
+Occasionally bands of natives would come out from shore in their canoes and
+circle the ship, but we gave them no further encouragement to come aboard,
+and in the course of the morning Roger divided us anew into anchor watches.
+All in all we worked as hard, I think, as I ever have worked, but we were
+so well contented with the outcome of our adventures that there was almost
+no grumbling at all.
+
+When at last I went below I was dead tired. Every nerve and weary muscle
+throbbed and ached, and flinging myself on my bunk, I fell instantly into
+the deepest sleep. When I woke with the echo of the call, "All hands on
+deck," still lingering in my ears, it seemed as if I scarcely had closed my
+eyes; but while I hesitated between sleeping and waking, the call sounded
+again with a peremptory ring that brought me to my feet in spite of my
+fatigue.
+
+"All hands on deck! Tumble up! Tumble up!" It was the third summons.
+
+When we staggered forth, blinded by the glaring sunlight, the other watch
+already had snatched up muskets and pikes and all were staring to the
+northeast. Thence, moving very slowly indeed, once more came the boat.
+
+Falk was sitting down now; his chin rested on his hands and his face was
+ghastly pale; the bandage round his head appeared bloodier than ever and
+dirtier. The men, too, were white and woe-begone, and Kipping was scowling
+disagreeably.
+
+It seemed shameful to take arms against human beings in such a piteous
+plight, but we stood with our muskets cocked and waited for them to speak
+first.
+
+"Haven't you men hearts?" Falk cried when he had come within earshot. "Are
+you going to sit there aboard ship with plenty of food and drink and see
+your shipmates a-dying of starvation and thirst?"
+
+The men rested on their oars while he called to us; but when we did not
+answer, he motioned with his hand and they again rowed toward us with
+short, feeble strokes.
+
+"All we ask is food and water," Falk said, when he had come so near that we
+could see the lines on the faces of the men and the worn, hunted look in
+their eyes.
+
+They had laid their weapons on the bottom of the boat, and there was
+nothing warlike about them now to remind us of the bloody fight they had
+waged against us. With a boy's short memory of the past and short sight for
+the future, I was ready to take the poor fellows aboard and to forgive them
+everything; and though it undoubtedly was foolish of me, I am not ashamed
+of my generous weakness. They seemed so utterly miserable! But fortunately
+wiser counsels prevailed.
+
+"You ain't really going to leave us to perish of hunger and thirst, are
+you?" Falk cried. "We can't go ashore, even to get water. Those cursed
+heathen are laying to butcher us. Guns pointed at friends and shipmates is
+no kind of a 'welcome home.'"
+
+"Give us the money, then--" Roger began.
+
+The cook interrupted him in an undertone that was plainly audible though
+probably not intended for all ears.
+
+"Yeee-ah! Heah dat yeh man discribblate! He don't like guns pointed at
+shipmates, hey? How about guns pointed at a cap'n when he ain't lookin'?
+Hey?"
+
+Falk obviously overheard the cook's muttered sally and was disconcerted by
+it; and the murmur of assent with which our men received it convinced me
+that it went a long way to reinforce their determination to withstand the
+other party at any cost whatsoever.
+
+After hesitating perceptibly, Falk decided to ignore it. "All we want's
+bread and water," he whined.
+
+"Give us the money, then," Roger repeated, "and we'll see that you don't
+starve." His voice was calm and incisive. He absolutely controlled the
+situation.
+
+Falk threw up his hands in a gesture of despair. "But we ain't got the
+money. So help me God, we ain't got a cent of it."
+
+"Hand over the money," Roger repeated, "and we'll give you food and water."
+He pointed at the quarter-boat, which swung at the end of a long painter.
+"Come no nearer. Put the money in that boat and we'll haul it up."
+
+"We _ain't got the money_, I tell you. I swear on my immortal soul, we
+ain't got it." Falk seemed to be on the point of weeping. He was so weak
+and white!
+
+When Roger did not reply, I turned to look at him. There was a thoughtful
+expression on his face, and following the direction of his eyes, my own
+gaze rested on the face of the man from Boston. He was smiling. But when
+he saw us looking at him, he stopped and changed color.
+
+"I believe you," Roger declared suddenly. "You'll have to keep your
+distance or I'll blow your boat to pieces; but if you obey orders, I'll
+help you out as far as a few days' supply of food will go. Cook, haul in
+that boat and put half a hundredweight of ship's bread and four buckets of
+water in it. That'll keep 'em for a while."
+
+"You ain't gwine to feed dat yeh Kipping, sah, is you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The cook turned in silence to do Roger's bidding.
+
+Twice the man from Boston started forward as if to speak. The motion was so
+slight that it almost escaped me, but the second time I was sure that I
+really had detected such an impulse, and at the same moment I perceived
+that Falk, whose fingers were twitching nervously, was shooting an angry
+glance at him. This byplay to a considerable extent distracted my
+attention; but when the fellow finally did get up courage to speak, I saw
+that the eyes of every man in Falk's boat were on him and that Kipping had
+clenched both fists.
+
+"Stop!" the man from Boston cried. "Stop!" He stepped toward Roger with one
+hand raised.
+
+Roger soberly turned on him. "Be still," he said.
+
+"But, sir--"
+
+"Be still!"
+
+"But, sir, there ain't no--"
+
+Certainly as far as we could see, the man's feverish persistence was arrant
+insubordination. What Roger would have done we had no time to learn, for
+Blodgett, bursting with zeal for our common cause, grasped him by the
+throat and choked his words into a gurgle. A queer expression of spite and
+hatred passed over the man's face, and when he squirmed away from
+Blodgett's grip I saw that he was muttering to himself as he rubbed his
+bruised neck. But the others were paying him no attention and he presently
+folded his arms with an air that continued to trouble me and stood apart
+from the rest.
+
+And Falk and Kipping and all their men now were grinning broadly!
+
+The water slopped over the edges of the buckets and wet some of the bread
+as the cook pushed the boat out toward Falk; but the men in the pinnace
+watched it eagerly, and when it floated to the end of the painter, they
+clutched for it so hastily that they almost upset the precious buckets.
+
+When they had got it, they looked at each other and laughed and slapped
+their legs and laughed again in an uproarious, almost maudlin mirth that we
+could not understand.
+
+We covered them with our muskets lest they try to seize the boat, which I
+firmly believe they had contemplated before they realized how closely we
+were watching them, and we smiled to see them cram their mouths with bread
+and pass the buckets from hand to hand. When they had finished their
+inexplicable laughter, they ate like animals and drew new strength and
+courage from their food. Though Falk was still white under his bloody
+bandage, his voice was stronger.
+
+"I'll remember this," he said. "Maybe I'll give you a day or two of grace
+before you swing. Oh, you can laugh at me now, you white-livered sons of
+sea-cooks, but the day's coming when you'll sing another song to pay your
+piper."
+
+He looked round and laughed at his own men, and again they all laughed as
+if he had said something clever, and he and Kipping exchanged glances.
+
+"They ain't found the gold," he caustically remarked to Kipping. "We'll see
+what we shall see."
+
+"Ay, we'll see," Kipping returned, mildly. "We'll see. It'll be fun to see
+it, too, won't it, sir?"
+
+It was all very silly, and we, of course, had nothing to say in return; so
+we watched them, with our muskets peeping over the bulwark and with the
+long gun and the stern-chasers cleared in case of trouble, and in
+undertones we kept up an exchange of comments.
+
+After whispering among themselves, the men in the boat once more began to
+row toward us. Singularly enough they showed no sign of the exhaustion that
+a little before had seemed so painful. It slowly dawned upon me that their
+air of misery had been nothing more than a cheap trick to play upon our
+compassion. We watched them suspiciously, but they now assumed a frank
+manner, which they evidently hoped would put us off our guard.
+
+"Now you men listen to me," said Falk. "After all, what's the use of
+behaving this way? You're just getting yourselves into trouble with the
+law. We can send you to the gallows for this little spree, and what's more
+we're going to do it--unless, that is, unless you come round sensible and
+call it all off. Now what do you say? Why don't you be reasonable? You take
+us on board and we'll use you right and hush all this up as best we can.
+What do you say?"
+
+"What do we say?" said Roger, "We say that bread and water have gone to
+your head. You were singing another time a while back."
+
+"Oh well, we _were_ a little down in the mouth then. But we're feeling a
+sight better now. Come, ain't our plan reasonable?"
+
+All the time they were rowing slowly nearer to the ship.
+
+"Mistah Falk, O Mistah Falk!"
+
+"Well?" Falk received the cook's interruption with an ill temper that made
+the darkey's eyes roll with joy.
+
+"Whar you git dat bootiful head-piece?"
+
+
+A flush darkened Falk's pale face under the bandage, and with what dignity
+he could muster, he ignored our snickers.
+
+"What do you say?" he cried to Roger. "Evidently you haven't found the
+money yet."
+
+To us Roger said in an undertone, "Hold your fire." To Falk he
+replied clearly, "You black-hearted villain, if you show your face in a
+Christian port you'll go to the gallows for abetting the cold-blooded
+murder of an able officer and an honorable gentleman, Captain Joseph
+Whidden. Quid that over a while and stow your tales of piracy and mutiny.
+Back water, you! Keep off!"
+
+Here was no subtle insinuation. Falk was stopped in his tracks by the flat
+statement. He had a dazed, frightened look. But Kipping, who had kept
+himself in the background up to this point, now assumed command.
+
+"Them's bad words," he said mildly, coldly. "Bad words. _But_--" he
+slightly raised his voice--"we ain't a-goin' to eat 'em. Not we." All at
+once he let out a yell that rang shrilly far over the water. "At 'em, men!
+At 'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull! Out pikes and cutlasses! Take
+'em by storm! Slash the netting and go over the side."
+
+"Hold your fire,"--Roger repeated,--"one minute--till I give the word."
+
+My heart was pounding at my ribs. I was breathing in fast gulps. With my
+thumb on the hammer of the musket, I gave one glance to the priming, and
+half raised it to my shoulder.
+
+From the bottom of the boat Falk's men had snatched up the weapons that
+hitherto they had kept out of sight. I had no time then to wonder why they
+did not shoot; afterwards we agreed that they probably were so short of
+powder and balls that they dared not expend any except in gravest
+emergency. Kipping was standing as they rowed, and so fiercely now did they
+ply their oars, casting to the winds every pretence of weakness, that the
+boat rocked from side to side.
+
+"At 'em!" Kipping snarled. "We'll show 'em! We'll show'em!"
+
+"Hold your fire, men," said Roger the third time. "I'll wing that bird."
+And aiming deliberately, he shot.
+
+The report of his musket rang out sharply and was followed by a groan.
+Kipping clutched his thigh with both hands and fell. The men stopped rowing
+and the boat, gradually losing way, veered in a half circle and lay
+broadside toward us. In the midst of the confusion aboard it, I saw Kipping
+sitting up and cursing in a way that chilled my blood. "Oh," he moaned,
+"I'll get you yet! I'll get you yet!" Then some one in the boat returned a
+single shot that buried itself in our bulwark.
+
+"Yeeeehaha! Got Kipping!" the cook cackled. "He got Kipping!"
+
+"Now then," cried Roger, "bear off. We've had enough of you. If ever again
+you come within gunshot of this ship, we'll shoot so much lead into you
+that the weight will sink you. It's only a leg wound, Kipping. I was
+careful where I aimed."
+
+In a disorderly way the men began to pull out of range, but still we could
+hear Kipping shrieking a stream of oaths and maledictions, and now Falk
+stood up and shook his fist at us and yelled with as much semblance of
+dignity as he could muster, "I'll see you yet, all seven of you, I'll see
+you a-swinging one after another from the game yard-arm!" Then, to our
+amazement, one of them whispered to the others behind his hand, and they
+all began to laugh again as if they had played some famous joke on us.
+
+Instead of going toward the island, they rowed out into the ocean. We could
+not understand it. Surely they would not try to cross the China Sea in an
+open boat! Were they so afraid of the natives?
+
+Still we could hear Kipping, faintly now, bawling wrath and blasphemy. We
+could see Captain Falk shaking his fist at us, and very clearly we could
+hear his faint voice calling, "I'll sack that ship, so help me! We'll see
+then what's become of the money."
+
+Where in heaven's name could they be going? Suddenly the answer came to us.
+Beyond them in the farthest offing were the tiny sails of the almost
+becalmed junk. They were rowing toward it. Eight mariners from a Christian
+land!
+
+In that broad expanse of land and sea and sky, the only moving object was
+the boat bearing Captain Falk and his men, which minute after minute
+labored across the gently tossing sea.
+
+Already the monsoon was weakening. The winds were variable, and for the
+time being scarce a breath of air was stirring.
+
+From the masthead we watched the boat grow smaller and smaller until it
+seemed no bigger than the point of a pin. The men were rowing with short,
+slow strokes. They may have gone eight or ten miles before darkness closed
+in upon them and blotted them out, and they must have got very near to the
+junk.
+
+The moon, rising soon after sunset, flooded the world with a pale light
+that made the sea shine like silver and made the island appear like a dark,
+low shadow. But of the boat and the junk it revealed nothing.
+
+The cook and Blodgett and I were talking idly on the fore hatch when
+faintly, but so distinctly that we could not mistake it, we heard far off
+the report of a gun.
+
+"Listen!" cried Blodgett.
+
+It came again and then again.
+
+The cook laid his hand on my shoulder. "Boy," he gasped out, "don' you heah
+dat yeh screechin'?"
+
+"No," said I.
+
+"Listen!"
+
+We sat for a long time silent, and presently we heard one more very distant
+gunshot.
+
+Neither Blodgett nor I had heard anything else, but the cook insisted that
+he had heard clearly the sound of some one far off shrieking and wailing in
+the night. "Ah heah dat yeh noise, yass, sah. Ah ain't got none of dem
+yamalgamations what heahs what ain't."
+
+He was so big and black and primitive, and his great ears spread so far out
+from his head, that he reminded me of some wild beast. Certainly he had a
+wild beast's keen ears.
+
+But now Blodgett raised his hand. "Here's wind," he said.
+
+And wind it was, a fresh breeze that seemed to gather up the waning
+strength of the light airs that had been playing at hide and seek with our
+ropes and canvas.
+
+At daybreak, cutting the cable and abandoning the working bower, we got
+under way on the remainder of our voyage to China, bearing in a generally
+northwesterly course to avoid the dangerous waters lying directly between
+us and the port of our destination.
+
+As we hauled at halyard and sheet and brace, and sprang quickly about at
+Roger's bidding, I found no leisure to watch the dawn, nor did I think of
+aught save the duties of the moment, which in some ways was a blessed
+relief; but I presently became aware that David Paine, who seemed able to
+work without thought, had stopped and was staring intently across the heavy
+seas that went rolling past us. Then, suddenly, he cried in his deep voice,
+"Sail ho!"
+
+Hazily, in the silver light that intervened between moonset and sunrise, we
+saw a junk with high poop and swinging batten sails bearing across our
+course. She took the seas clumsily, her sails banging as she pitched, and
+we gathered at the rail to watch her pass.
+
+"See there, men!" old Blodgett cried.
+
+He pointed his finger at the strange vessel. We drew closer and stared
+incredulously.
+
+On the poop of the junk, beside the cumbersome rudder windlass, leaning
+nonchalantly against the great carved rail, were Captain Nathan Falk and
+Chief Mate Kipping. That the slow craft could not cross our bows, they saw
+as well as we. Indeed, I question if they cared a farthing whether they
+sighted us that day or not. But they and their men, who gathered forward to
+stare sullenly as we drew near, shook fists and once more shouted curses. I
+could see them distinctly, Falk and Kipping and the carpenter and the
+steward and the sail-maker and the rest--angry, familiar faces.
+
+When we had swept by them, running before the wind, some one called after
+us in a small, far-off voice, "We'll see you yet in Sunda Strait."
+
+There was a commotion on the deck of the junk and Blodgett declared that
+Falk had hit a man.
+
+Were they changing their time for some reason that they did not want us to
+suspect? _Did they really wish to cut us off on our return?_
+
+
+Speculating about the fate of the yellow mariners who once had manned those
+clumsy sails, and about what scenes of bloody cruelty there must have been
+when those eight mad desperadoes attacked the ancient Chinese vessel, we
+sailed away and left them in their pirated junk. But I imagined, even when
+the old junk was hull down beyond the horizon, that I could hear an angry
+voice calling after us.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+WE REACH WHAMPOA, BUT NOT THE END OF OUR TROUBLES
+
+
+We were only seven men to work that ship, and after all these years I
+marvel at our temerity. Time and again the cry "All hands" would come down
+the hatch and summon the three of us from below to make sail, or reef, or
+furl, or man the braces. Weary and almost blind with sleep, we would
+stagger on deck and pull and haul, or would swarm aloft and strive to cope
+with the sails. The cook, and even Roger, served tricks at the wheel, turn
+and turn about with the rest of us; and for three terrible weeks we forced
+ourselves to the sheets and halyards, day and night, when we scarcely could
+hold our eyes open or bend our stiffened fingers.
+
+A Divine Providence must have watched over us during the voyage and have
+preserved us from danger; for though at that season bad storms are by no
+means unknown, the weather remained settled and fine. With clear water
+under our keel we passed shoal and reef and low-lying island. Now we saw a
+Tonquinese trader running before the wind, a curious craft, with one mast
+and a single sail bent to a yard at the head and stiffened by bamboo sprits
+running from luff to leech; now a dingy nondescript junk; now in the offing
+a fleet of proas, which caused us grave concern. But in all our passage
+only one event was really worth noting.
+
+When we were safely beyond London Reefs and the Fiery Cross, we laid our
+course north by east to pass west of Macclesfield Bank. All was going as
+well as we had dared expect, so willing was every man of our little
+company, except possibly the man from Boston, whom I suspected of a
+tendency to shirk, when late one evening the cook came aft with a very long
+face.
+
+"Well," said Roger, his eyes a-twinkle. "What's wrong in the galley,
+doctor?"
+
+"Yass, sah, yass, sah! S'pose, sah, you don't' know dah's almost no mo'
+wateh foh to drink, sah."
+
+"What's that you say?"
+
+"Yass, sah, yass, sah, we done share up with dat yeh Kipping and dah ain't
+no mo' to speak of at all, sah."
+
+It was true. The casks below decks were empty. In the casks already broken
+out there was enough for short rations to last until we made port, so our
+predicament as yet was by no means desperate; but we remembered the
+laughter of Falk and his men, and we were convinced that they knew the
+trick they played when they persuaded us to divide the ship's bread and
+water. By what mishap or mismanagement the supply of food had fallen
+short--there had been abundant opportunity for either--we were never to
+learn; but concerning the water-supply and Falk's duplicity, we were very
+soon enlightened.
+
+"Our friend from Boston," Roger said slowly, when the cook had gone, "seems
+to have played us double. We'll have him below, Ben, and give him a chance
+to explain."
+
+I liked the fellow less than ever when he came into the cabin. He had a
+certain triumphant air that consorted ill with his trick of evading one's
+eyes. He came nervously, I thought; but to my surprise Roger's caustic
+accusal seemed rather to put him at ease than to disconcert him further.
+
+"And so," Roger concluded, after stating the case in no mincing terms, "you
+knew us to be short of water, yet you deliberately neglected to warn us."
+
+"Didn't I try to speak, sir? Didn't you cut me off, sir?"
+
+Roger looked at him gravely. Although the fellow flinched, he was telling
+the truth. In justice we had to admit that Roger had given him no hearing.
+
+"Ay, and that skinny old money-chaser tried to throttle me," he continued.
+"Falk lay off that island only because we needed water. Ay, we all knew we
+needed it--Falk and all of us. But them murderin' natives was after our
+heart's blood whenever we goes ashore, just because Chips and Kipping
+drills a few bullet-holes in some of 'em. I knew what Falk was after when
+he asks you for water, sir. The scuttlebutts with water in 'em was on deck
+handy, and most of them below was empty where you wa'n't likely to trouble
+'em for a while yet. He see how't would work out. Wasn't I going to tell
+you, even though he killed me for it, until you cut me off and that 'un
+choked me? It helps take the soreness--it--I tried to tell you, sir."
+
+In petty spite, the fellow had committed himself, along with the rest of
+us, to privation at the very least. Yet he had a defense of a kind,
+contemptible though it was, and Roger let him go.
+
+It was a weary voyage; but all things have an end, and in ten days we had
+left Helen Shoal astern. Now we saw many junks and small native craft,
+which we viewed with uncomfortable suspicion, for though our cannon were
+double-charged and though loaded muskets were stacked around the
+mizzenmast, we were very, very few to stand off an attack by those yellow
+demons who swarmed the Eastern seas in the time of my boyhood and who, for
+all I know, swarm them still.
+
+There came at last a day when we went aloft and saw with red eyes that
+ached for sleep hills above the horizon and a ship in the offing with all
+sails set. A splendid sight she was, for our own flag flew from the ensign
+halyards, and less than three weeks before, any man of us would have given
+his right hand to see that ship and that flag within hail; but now it was
+the sight of land that thrilled us to the heart. Hungry, thirsty, worn out
+with fatigue, we joyously stared at those low, distant hills.
+
+"Oh, mah golly, oh, mah golly!" the cook cried, in ecstasy, "jest once Ah
+gits mah foots on dry land Ah's gwine be de happies' nigger eveh bo'n. Ah
+ain' neveh gwine to sea agin, no sah, not neveh."
+
+"Ay, land's good," Davie Paine muttered, "but the sea holds a man."
+
+Blodgett said naught. What dreams of wealth were stirring in his head, I
+never knew. He was so very pale! He more than any one else, I think, was
+exhausted by the hardships of the voyage.
+
+Roger, gaunt and silent, stood with his arms crossed on the rail. He had
+eaten almost nothing; he had slept scarcely at all. With unceasing courage
+he had done his duty by day and by night, and I realized as I saw him
+standing there, sternly indomitable, that his was the fibre of heroes. I
+was proud of him--and when I thought of my sister, I was glad. Then it was
+that I remembered my father's words when, as we walked toward Captain
+Whidden's house, we heard our gate shut and he knew without looking back
+who had entered.
+
+We came into the Canton River, or the Chu-Kiang as it is called, by the
+Bocca-Tigris, and with the help of some sailing directions that Captain
+Whidden had left in writing we passed safely through the first part of
+the channel between Tiger Island and Towling Flat. Thence, keeping the
+watch-tower on Chuen-pee Fort well away from the North Fort of Anung-hoy,
+we worked up toward Towling Island in seven or eight fathoms.
+
+A thousand little boats and sampans clustered round us, and we were annoyed
+and a little frightened by the gesticulations of the Chinese who manned
+them, until it dawned on us that they wished to serve as pilots. By signs
+we drove a bargain--a silver dollar and two fingers; three fingers; five
+fingers--and got for seven silver dollars the services of several men in
+four sampans, who took their places along the channel just ahead of us and
+sounded the depth with bamboo poles, until by their guidance we crossed the
+second bar on the flood tide, which providentially came at the very hour
+when we most needed it, and proceeded safely on up the river.
+
+That night, too tired and weak to stand, we let the best bower go by the
+run in Whampoa Roads, and threw ourselves on the deck. By and by--hours
+later it seemed--we heard the sound of oars.
+
+"Island Princess ahoy!" came the hearty hail.
+
+"Ahoy," some one replied.
+
+"What's wrong? Come, look alive! What does this mean?"
+
+I now sat up and saw that Roger was standing in the stern just as he had
+stood before, his feet spread far apart, his arms folded, his chin
+out-thrust. "Do you, sir," he said slowly, "happen to have a bottle of wine
+with you?"
+
+I heard the men talking together, but I could not tell what they were
+saying. Next, I saw a head appear above the bulwark and realized that they
+were coming aboard.
+
+"Bless my soul! What's happened? Where's Captain Whidden? Bless my soul!
+Who are _you_?" The speaker was big, well dressed, comfortably well fed. He
+stared at the six of us sprawled out grotesquely on the deck, where we had
+thrown ourselves when the ship swung at her anchor. He looked up at the
+loose, half-furled sails. He turned to Roger, who stood gaunt and silent
+before him. "Bless my soul! _Who are you?_"
+
+"I," said Roger, "am Mr. Hamlin, supercargo of this ship."
+
+"But where--what in heaven's name has taken place? Where's Captain
+Whidden?"
+
+"Captain Whidden," said Roger, "is dead."
+
+"But when--but what--"
+
+"_Who are you?_" Roger fired the words at him like a thunderclap.
+
+"I--I--I am Mr. Johnston, agent for Thomas Webster and Sons," the man
+stammered.
+
+"Sir," cried Roger, "if you are agent for Thomas Webster and Sons, fetch us
+food and water and get watchmen to guard this ship while we sleep. Then,
+sir, I'll tell you such a story as you'll not often hear."
+
+The well-fed, comfortable man regarded him with a kind of frown. The
+situation was so extraordinary that he simply could not comprehend it. For
+a moment he hesitated, then, stepping to the side, he called down some
+order, which I did not understand, but which evidently sent the boat
+hurrying back to the landing. As he paced the deck, he repeated over and
+over in a curiously helpless way, "Bless my soul! Bless my soul!"
+
+All this time I was aware of Roger still standing defiantly on the
+quarter-deck. I know that I fell asleep, and that when I woke he was still
+there. Shortly afterwards some one raised my head and gave me something hot
+to drink and some one else repeated my name, and I saw that Roger was no
+longer in sight. Then, as I was carried below, I vaguely heard some one
+repeating over and over, "Bless my soul! It is awful! Why won't that young
+man explain things? Bless my soul!" When I opened my eyes sunlight was
+creeping through the hatch.
+
+"Is this not Mr. Lathrop?" a stranger asked, when I stepped out in the open
+air--and virtually for the first time, so weary had I been the night
+before, saw the pointed hills, the broad river, and the great fleet of
+ships lying at anchor.
+
+"Yes," said I, surprised at the man's respectful manner. Immediately I was
+aware that he was no sailor.
+
+"I thought as much. Mr. Hamlin says, will you go to the cabin. I was just
+going to call you. Mr. Johnston has come aboard again and there's some kind
+of a conference. Mr. Johnston does get so wrought up! If you'll hurry right
+along--"
+
+As I turned, the strange landsman kept in step with me. "Mr. Johnston is so
+wrought up!" he repeated interminably. "So wrought up! I never saw him so
+upset before."
+
+When I entered the cabin, Roger sat in the captain's chair, with Mr.
+Johnston on his right and a strange gentleman on his left. Opposite Roger
+was a vacant seat, but I did not venture to sit down until the others
+indicated that they wished me to do so.
+
+"This is a strange story I've been hearing, Mr. Lathrop," said Mr.
+Johnston. His manner instantly revealed that my family connection carried
+weight with him. "I thought it best you should join us. One never knows
+when a witness will be needed. It's one of the most disturbing situations
+I've met in all my experience."
+
+The stranger gravely nodded.
+
+"Certainly it is without precedent in my own experience," said Roger.
+
+Mr. Johnston tapped the table nervously. "Captain and chief mate killed by
+a member of the crew; second mate--later, acting captain--accused of
+abetting the murder. You must admit, sir, that you make that charge on
+decidedly inadequate evidence. And one hundred thousand dollars in gold
+gone, heaven knows where! Bless my soul, what shall I do?"
+
+"Do?" cried Roger. "Help us to make arrangements to unload the cargo, to
+ship a new crew, and to get a return cargo. It seems to me obvious enough
+what you 'shall do'!"
+
+"But, Mr. Hamlin, the situation is extraordinary. There are legal problems
+involved. There is no captain--bless my soul! I never heard of such a
+thing."
+
+"I've brought this ship across the China Sea with only six hands. I assure
+you that I shall have no difficulty in taking her back to Salem when a
+new crew is aboard." Roger's eyes twinkled as of old. "Here's your
+captain--I'll do. Lathrop, here, will do good work as supercargo, I'm sure.
+I'm told there's the crew of a wrecked brig in port. They'll fill up our
+forecastle and maybe furnish me with a mate or two. You'll have to give us
+papers of a kind."
+
+"Lathrop as supercargo? He's too young. He's only a lad."
+
+"We can get no one else off-hand who has so good an education," said Roger.
+"He can write a fair-copy, cipher, and keep books. I'll warrant, Mr.
+Johnston, that not even you can catch him napping with a problem in tare
+and tret. Above all, the Websters know him well and will be glad to see him
+climb."
+
+"Hm! I'm doubtful--well, very well. As you say. But one hundred thousand
+dollars in gold--bless my soul! I was told nothing about that; the letters
+barely mention it." Mr. Johnston beat a mad tattoo on the arm of his chair.
+
+"That, sir, is my affair and my responsibility. I will answer to the
+owners."
+
+"Bless my soul! I'm afraid I'll be compounding piracy, murder, and heaven
+knows what other crimes; but we shall see--we shall see." Mr. Johnston got
+up and paced the cabin nervously. "Well, what's done's done. Nothing to do
+but make the best of a bad bargain. Woolens are high now, praise the Lord,
+and there's a lively demand for ginseng. Well, I've already had good
+offers. I'll show you the figures, Captain Hamlin, if you'll come to the
+factory. And you, too, Mr. Lathrop. If you daren't leave the ship, I'll
+send ashore for them. I'm confident we can fill out your crew, and I
+suppose I'll have to give you some kind of a statement to authorize your
+retaining command--What if I am compounding a felony? Bless my soul! And
+one hundred thousand dollars!"
+
+I was glad enough to see Mr. Johnston rowed away from the ship. Roger,
+accompanying him, returned late in the evening with half a dozen new men
+and a Mr. Cledd, formerly mate of the brig Essay, which had been wrecked a
+few weeks before in a typhoon off Hainan. He was a pleasant fellow of about
+Roger's age, and had a frank manner that we all liked. The new men, all of
+whom had served under him on the Essay, reported him to be a smart officer,
+a little severe perhaps, but perfectly fair in his dealings with the crew;
+so we were almost as glad to have him in the place of Kipping, as we were
+to have Roger in the place of Captain Falk. We had settled down in the
+forecastle to talk things over when presently word came that Davie Paine
+and I were wanted aft.
+
+"Ben," said Roger to me, cordially, "you can move your things into the
+cabin. You are to be supercargo." He tapped his pencil on the table and
+turned to Davie with a kindly smile. "You, Davie, can have your old
+berth of second mate, if you wish it. I'll not degrade a faithful man.
+You'd better move aft to-day, for the new crew is coming aboard to-morrow."
+
+Davie scratched his head and shifted his feet uneasily. "Thank you, sir,"
+he said at last. "It's good of you and I'm sure I appreciate it, but I
+ain't no great shakes of a scholar and I--well, if it's all the same to
+you, sir, I'll stay for'ard with the men, sir."
+
+I was surprised to find how hard it was to leave the forecastle. The others
+were all so friendly and so glad of my good fortune, that they brought a
+lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. It seemed as if I were taking leave
+forever, instead of only moving the length of the ship; and, indeed, as I
+had long since learned, the distance from forecastle to cabin is not to be
+measured by feet and inches.
+
+"I knew't would come," Neddie Benson remarked. "You was a gentleman's son.
+But we've had good times together--ay, and hard times, too." He shook his
+head dolefully.
+
+All who were left of the old crew gathered round me while I closed my
+chest, and Blodgett and Davie Paine seized the beckets before I knew what
+they were about and carried it to my stateroom.
+
+
+As I passed the galley the cook stopped me. "You ain't gwine far, sah,
+praise de Lo'd!" he said. "Dah's a hot time ahead and we gotta stand one by
+anotheh. Ah's gwine keep my eye on dat yeh man f'om Boston. Yass, sah! Ah's
+gwine keep mah eye on him."
+
+Now what did the cook mean by that, I wondered. But no answer suggested
+itself to me, and when I entered the cabin I heard things that drove the
+cook and the man from Boston far out of my mind.
+
+"Kipping!" Mr. Cledd, the new chief mate was saying. "Not _William_
+Kipping?"
+
+Roger got down the attested copy of the articles and pointed at the neatly
+written name: "William Kipping."
+
+Mr. Cledd looked very grave indeed. "I've heard of Falk--he's a vicious
+scoundrel in some ways, although too weak to be dangerous of his own
+devices But I _know_ Kipping."
+
+"Tell me about him,' said Roger.
+
+"Kipping is the meanest, doggonedest, low-down wharf-runner that ever
+robbed poor Jack of his wages. That's Kipping. Furthermore, he never signed
+a ship's articles unless he thought there was considerable money in it
+somewhere. I tell you, Captain Hamlin, he's an angry, disappointed man at
+this very minute. If you want to know what I think, he's out somewhere on
+those seas yonder--_just_--_waiting_. We've not seen the last of Kipping."
+
+Roger got up, and walking over to the chest of ammunition, thoughtfully
+regarded it.
+
+"No, sir!" Mr. Cledd reiterated, "if Kipping's Kipping, we've not seen the
+last of him."
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OLD SCORES AND NEW AND A DOUBTFUL WELCOME
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+A MYSTERY IS SOLVED, AND A THIEF GETS AWAY
+
+
+Innumerable sampans were plying up and down the river, some with masts and
+some without, and great junks with carved sterns lay side by side so
+closely that their sails formed a patchwork as many-colored as Joseph's
+coat. There were West River small craft with arched deck-houses, which had
+beaten their way precariously far up and down the coast; tall, narrow sails
+from the north, and web-peaked sails on curved yards from the south; Hainan
+and Kwangtung trawlers working upstream with staysails set, and a few
+storm-tossed craft with great holes gaping between their battens. All were
+nameless when I saw them for the first time, and strange; but in the days
+that followed I learned them rope and spar.
+
+Vessels from almost every western nation were there, too--bluff-bowed Dutch
+craft with square-headed crews, brigantines from the Levant, and ships from
+Spain, England, and America.
+
+The captains of three other American ships in port came aboard to inquire
+about the state of the seas between the Si-Kiang and the Cape of Good Hope
+and shook their heads gravely at what we told them. One, an old friend of
+Captain Whidden, said that he knew my own father. "It's shameful that such
+things should be--simply shameful," he declared, when he had heard the
+story of our fight with the Arab ship. "What with Arabs and Malays on the
+high seas, Ladronesers in port--ay, and British men-of-war everywhere!"
+
+He went briskly over the side, settled himself in the stern-sheets of his
+boat, and gave us on the quarter-deck a wave of his hand; then his men
+rowed him smartly away down-stream.
+
+"Ay, it is shameful," Roger repeated. He soberly watched the other
+disappear among the shipping, then he turned to Mr. Cledd. "I shall go
+ashore for the day," he said. "I have business that will take considerable
+time, and I think that Mr. Lathrop had better come too, and bring his
+books."
+
+As we left the ship we saw Mr. Cledd observing closely all that went
+forward, and Roger gravely nodded when I remarked that our new mate knew
+his business.
+
+At the end of some three weeks of hard work we had cleared the hold,
+painted and overhauled the ship inside and out, and were ready to begin
+loading at daylight on a Monday morning. However great was Mr. Johnston's
+proclivity to get "wrought up," he had proved himself an excellent man of
+business by the way he had conducted our affairs ashore when once he put
+his hand to them; and we, too, had accomplished much, both in getting out
+the cargo and in putting the ship in repair. We had stripped her to her
+girt-lines, calked her, decks and all, from her hold up, and painted her
+inside and out. She was a sight to be proud of, when, rigged once more, she
+swung at her anchorage.
+
+That evening, as Roger and Mr. Cledd, the new second mate, and I were
+sitting in the cabin and talking of our plans and prospects, we heard a
+step on the companionway.
+
+"Who's that?" Mr. Cledd asked in an undertone. "I thought steward had gone
+for the night."
+
+Roger motioned him to remain silent. We all turned.
+
+To our amazement it was the cook who suddenly appeared before us, rolling
+his eyes wildly under his deep frown.
+
+"'Scuse me, gen'lems! 'Scuse me, Cap'n Hamlin! 'Scuse me, Mistah Cledd!
+'Scuse me, ev'ybody! Ah knows Ah done didn't had ought to, but Ah says,
+Frank, you ol' nigger, you jest up 'n' go. Don't you let dat feller git
+away with all dat yeh money."
+
+"What's that?" Roger cried sharply.
+
+"Yass, sah! Yass, sah! Hun f'om Boston! He's got de chisel and de hammer
+and de saw."
+
+We all stared.
+
+"Come, come, doctor," said Roger. "What's this cock-and-bull story?"
+
+"Yass, sah, he's got de chisel and de hammer and de saw. Ah was a-watchin',
+yass, sah. He don't fool dis yeh ol' nigger. Ah see him sneakin' round when
+Chips he ain't looking."
+
+For a moment Roger frowned, then in a low, calm voice he said, "Mr. Cledd,
+you'll take command on deck. Have a few men with you. Better see that your
+pistols are well primed. You two, come with me. Now, then, Frank, lead the
+way."
+
+From the deck we could see the lanterns of all the ships lying at anchor,
+the hills and the land-lights and a boat or two moving on the river. We
+hurried close at the negro's heels to the main hatch.
+
+"Look dah!" The negro rested the blunt tip of one of his great fingers on
+the deck.
+
+Some sharp tool had dropped beside the hatch and had cut a straight, thin
+line where it fell.
+
+"Chisel done dat."
+
+We were communicating in whispers now, and with a finger at his lips the
+cook gave us a warning glance. He then laid hold of the rope that was made
+fast to a shears overhead, swung out, and slid down to the very keelson.
+Silently, one at a time, we followed. The only sound was our sibilant
+breathing and the very faint shuffle of feet. Now we could see, almost
+midway between the hatches, the dim light of a candle and a man at work.
+While we watched, the man cautiously struck several blows. Was he scuttling
+the ship? Then, as Roger and the cook tiptoed forward, I suddenly tripped
+over a piece of plank and sprawled headlong.
+
+As I fell, I saw Roger and the cook leap ahead, then the man doused the
+light. There was a sound of scuffling, a crash, a splutter of angry words.
+A moment later I heard the click of flint on steel, a tiny blaze sprang
+from the tinder, and the candle again sent up its bright flame.
+
+"Come, Ben, hold the light," Roger called. He and Frank had the man from
+Boston down on the limber board and were holding him fast. The fight,
+though fierce while it lasted, already was over.
+
+The second mate now handed me the candle, and bent over and examined the
+hole the man had cut in the ceiling. "Is the scoundrel trying to sink us?"
+he asked hotly.
+
+Roger smiled. "I suspect there's more than that behind this little
+project," he replied.
+
+The man from Boston groaned. "Don't--don't twist my arm," he begged.
+
+"Heee-ha-ha!" laughed the cook. "Guess Ah knows whar dat money is."
+
+"Open up the hole, Ben," said Roger.
+
+I saw now that there was a chalk-line, as true as the needle, from
+somewhere above us in the darkness, drawn along the skin of the hold
+perpendicular to the keelson, and that the man from Boston had begun to cut
+at the bilge where the line crossed it.
+
+He blinked at me angrily as I sawed through the planks. But when with
+chisel and saw I had removed a square yard of planking and revealed only
+the bilge-water that had backed up from the pump well, he brightened. Had
+the Island Princess not been as tight as you could wish, we should have had
+a wetter time of it than we had. Our feet were wet as it was, and the man
+from Boston was sadly drabbled.
+
+"There's nothing there?" said Roger, interrogatively. "Hm! Put your hand in
+and feel around."
+
+I reluctantly obeyed. Finding nothing at first, I thrust my arm deeper,
+then higher up beyond the curve. My fingers touched something hard that
+slipped away from them. Regardless of the foul water, I thrust my arm in
+still farther, and, securing my hold on a cord, drew out a leather bag. It
+was black and slimy, and so heavy that I had to use both hands to lift it,
+and it clinked when I set it down.
+
+"I thought so," said Roger. "There'll be more of them in there. Fish them
+out, Bennie."
+
+While Roger and the cook sat on the man from Boston and forced him down
+into the evil-smelling bilge-water, the second mate and I felt around under
+the skin of the hold and drew out bag after bag, until the candle-light
+showed eighteen lying side by side.
+
+"There ought to be two more," said Roger.
+
+"I can't find another one, sir," the second mate replied.
+
+I now hit upon an idea. "Here," said I, "here's what will do the work." I
+had picked up a six-foot pole and the others eagerly seized upon my
+suggestion.
+
+I worked the pole into the space between the inner and outer planking while
+the man from Boston blinked at me angrily, and fished about with it until I
+discovered and pried within reach two more leather bags.
+
+"Well done!" Roger cried. "Cook, suppose you take this fellow in
+tow,--we've a good strong set of irons waiting for him,--and I'll help
+carry these bags over under the hatch."
+
+Calling up to Mr. Cledd, Roger then instructed him to throw down a
+tarpaulin, which he did, and this we made fast about the twenty bags.
+Having taken several turns of a rope's end round the whole, Roger, carrying
+the other end, climbed hand-over-hand the rope by which we had lowered
+ourselves, and I followed at his heels; then we rigged a tackle and, with
+several men to help us, hauled up the bundle.
+
+"Cap'n Hamlin, sah," the cook called, "how's we gwine send up dis yeh
+scound'l?"
+
+"Let him come," said Roger. "We'll see to him. Prick his calves with a
+knife if he's slow about it."
+
+We heard the cook say in a lower voice, "G'wan, you ol' scalliwaggle";
+then, "Heah he is, cap'n, heah he come! Watch out foh him. He's
+nimble--yass, sah, he's nimble."
+
+The rope swayed in the darkness below the hatch, then the fellow's head and
+shoulders appeared; but, as we reached to seize him, he evaded our
+outstretched fingers by a quick wriggle, flung himself safely to the deck
+on the far side of the hatch, and leaping to the bulwark, dove into the
+river with scarcely a splash.
+
+Some one fired a musket at the water; the flash illuminated the side of the
+ship, and an echo rolled solemnly back from the shore. Three or four men
+pointed and called, "There he goes--there--there! See him swimming!" For a
+moment I myself saw him, a dark spot at the apex of a V-shaped ripple, then
+he disappeared. It was the last we ever knew of the man from Boston.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+
+We had the gold, though, twenty leather bags of it; and we carried it to
+the cabin and packed it into the safe, which it just filled.
+
+"Now," said Roger, "we _have_ a story to tell Mr. Johnston."
+
+"So we have!" exclaimed Mr. Cledd, who had heard as yet but a small part of
+this eventful history. "Will you tell me, though, how that beggar ever knew
+those bags were just there?"
+
+"Certainly." Roger's eyes twinkled as of old. "He put them there. When the
+islanders were everywhere aboard ship, and the rest of us were so much
+taken up with them and with the fight we'd just been through that we
+didn't know what was on foot,--it was still so dark that he could work
+unnoticed,--he sneaked below and opened the safe, which he had the craft to
+lock again behind him, and hauled the money forward to the hatch, a few
+bags at a time. Eventually he found a chance to crawl over the cargo, start
+a plank in the ceiling, drop the bags down inside the jacket one by one,
+and mark the place. Then, holding his peace until the cargo was out of the
+hold, he drew a chalk line straight down from his mark to the lower deck,
+took bearings from the hatch, and continued the line from the beam-clamp to
+the bilge, and cut on the curve. There, of course, was where the money had
+fallen. He worked hard--and failed."
+
+Then I remembered the hatch that had been pried off when the natives were
+ranging over the boat.
+
+Early next morning Roger, Mr. Cledd, and I, placing the money between us in
+the boat and arming ourselves and our men, each with a brace of pistols,
+went ashore. That brief trip seems a mere trifle as I write of it here and
+now, so far in distance and in time from the river at Whampoa, but I truly
+think it was as perilous a voyage as any I have made; for pirates, or
+Ladronesers as they were called, could not be distinguished from ordinary
+boatmen, and enough true stories of robbery and murder on that river passed
+current among seafaring men in my boyhood to make the everlasting fortune
+of one of those fellows who have nothing better to do than sit down and
+spin out a yarn of hair-raising adventures. But we showed our cocked
+pistols and passed unmolested through the press, and came at last safe to
+the landing.
+
+Laboring under the weight of gold, we went by short stages up to the
+factory, where Mr. Johnston in his dressing-gown met us, blessing his soul
+and altogether upset.
+
+"Never in my life," he cried, clasping his hands, "have I seen such men as
+you. And now, pray, what brings you here?"
+
+"We have come with one hundred thousand dollars," said Roger, "to be paid
+to the Chinese gentleman of whom you and I have spoken together."
+
+Mr. Johnston looked at the lumpy bundles wrapped now in canvas and for once
+rose to an emergency. "Come in," he said. "I'll dispatch a messenger
+immediately. Come in and I'll join you at breakfast."
+
+We ate our breakfast that morning with a fortune in gold coin under the
+table; and when the boat came down the river, bringing a quiet man whom Mr.
+Johnston introduced as the very person we were seeking, and who himself in
+quaint pidgin English corroborated the statement that he it was who had
+sent to Thomas Webster the five teakwood chests, we paid him the money and
+received in return his receipt beautifully written with small flourishes of
+the brush.
+
+"That's done," said Roger, when all was over, "in spite of as rascally a
+crew as ever sailed a Salem ship. I am, I fear, a pirate, a mutineer, and
+various other unsavory things; but I declare, Mr. Cledd, in addition to
+them all, I am an honest man."
+
+The coolies already had begun to pass chests of tea into the hold when we
+came aboard; and under the eye of the second mate, who was proving himself
+in every respect a competent officer,--in his own place the equal, perhaps,
+of Mr. Cledd in his,--all hands were industriously working. The days passed
+swiftly. Work aboard ship and business ashore crowded every hour; and so
+our stay on the river drew to an end.
+
+Before that time, however, Blodgett hesitantly sought me out one night.
+"Mr. Lathrop," he said with a bit of constraint, "I and Davie and Neddie
+and cook was a-thinkin' we'd like to do something for poor Bill Hayden's
+little girl. Of course we ain't got no great to give, but we've taken up a
+little purse of money, and we wondered wouldn't you, seein' you was a good
+friend to old Bill, like to come in with us?"
+
+That I was glad of the chance, I assured him. "And Captain Hamlin will come
+in, too," I added. "Oh, I'm certain he will."
+
+Blodgett seemed pleased. "Thinks I, he's likely to, but it ain't fit I
+should ask the captain."
+
+Promising to present the plea as if it were my own, I sent Blodgett away
+reassured, and eventually we all raised a sum that bought such a royal doll
+as probably no merchant in Newburyport ever gave his small daughter, and
+enough silk to make the little maid, when she should reach the age for it,
+as handsome a gown as ever woman wore. Nor was that the end. The night
+before we sailed from China, Blodgett came to me secretly, after a
+mysterious absence, and pressed a small package into my hand.
+
+"Don't tell," he said. "It's little enough. If we'd stopped off on some o'
+them islands I might ha' done better. Thinks I last night, I'd like to send
+her a bit of a gift all by myself as a kind of a keepsake, you know, sir,
+seeing I never had a little lass o' my own. So I slips away from the others
+and borrows a boat that was handy to the shore and drops down stream
+quiet-like till I comes in sight of one of them temples where there's gongs
+ringing and all manner of queer goings-on. Says I,--not aloud, you
+understand,--'Here, my lad, 's the very place you're looking for, just
+a-waiting for you!' So I sneaks up soft and easy,--it were a rare dark
+night,--and looks in, and what do I see by the light o' them there crazy
+lanterns? There was one o' them heathen idols! Yes, sir, a heathen idol as
+handy as you please. 'Aha!' says I,--not aloud, you understand, sir,--'Aha!
+I'll wager you've got a fine pair o' rubies in your old eye-sockets, you
+blessed idol.' And with that I takes a squint at the lay o' the land and
+sees my chance, and in I walks. The old priest, he gives a squawk, but I
+cracks him with a brass pot full of incense, which scatters and nigh chokes
+me, and I grabs the ear-rings and runs before they catches me, for all
+there's a million of 'em a-yammering at my heels. I never had a chance at
+the eyes--worse luck! But I fared well, when all's said and done. It was a
+dark night, thank heaven, and the boat was handy. The rings is jade. She'll
+like 'em some day."
+
+I restrained my chuckles until he had gone, and added the stolen treasures
+to the rest of the gifts. What else could I do? Certainly it was beyond my
+power to restore them to the rightful owners.
+
+The last chest of tea and the last roll of silk were swung into the hold,
+the hatches were battened down, and all was cleared for sailing as soon as
+wind and tide should favor us.
+
+That morning Mr. Johnston came aboard, more brisk and pompous than ever,
+and having critically inspected the ship, met us in the cabin for a final
+word. My new duties as supercargo had kept me busy and my papers were
+scattered over the table; but when I started to gather them up and
+withdraw, he motioned me to stay.
+
+"Never in all my experience has such a problem as this arisen," he
+exclaimed, rubbing his chin lugubriously. "Bless my soul! Who ever heard of
+such a thing? Captain and chief mate murdered--crew mutinied--bless my
+soul! Well, Captain Hamlin--I suppose you've noticed before, that I give
+you the title of master?--well, Captain Hamlin, I fear I'm compounding
+felony, but after all that's a matter to be settled in the courts. I'm
+confident that I cannot be held criminally responsible for not
+understanding a nice point in admiralty. Whatever else happens, the ship
+must go home to Salem, and you, sir, are the logical man to take her home.
+Well, sir, although in a way you represent the owners more directly than I
+do, still your authority is vicariously acquired and I've that here
+which'll protect you against interruption in the course of the voyage by
+any lawful process. I doubt, from all I've heard, if Falk will go to law;
+but here's a paper--" he drew it out of his pocket and laid it on the
+table--"signed, sealed and witnessed, stating that I, Walter Johnston,
+agent in China for Thomas Webster and Sons, do hereby recognize you as
+master of the ship Island Princess, and do invest you, as far as my
+authority goes, with whatever privileges and responsibilities are attached
+to the office. All questions legal and otherwise, ensuing from this
+investure, must be settled on your arrival at the United States of America.
+That, sir, is the best I can do for you, and I assure you that I hope
+sincerely you may not be hanged as a pirate but that I am by no means
+certain of it."
+
+Thus he left-handedly concluded his remarks, and murmuring under his
+breath, "Bless my soul," as if in final protest against everything without
+precedent, folded his fat hands over his expansive waist-band.
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Johnston," Roger replied gravely, though he could not
+completely hide the amusement in his eyes. "I'm sure it is handsome of you
+to do so much for us, and I certainly hope no act of piracy or violence, of
+which we may have been guilty, will compromise you in the slightest
+degree."
+
+"Thank _you_, Captain Hamlin. I hope so myself."
+
+If I had met Roger's glance, I must have laughed outright. The man was so
+unconscious of any double edge to Roger's words, and so complacent, that
+our meeting was all but farce, when he bethought himself of another subject
+of which he had intended to speak.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed. "I well nigh forgot. Shall you--but of
+course you will not!--go home by way of Sunda Strait?"
+
+Mr. Cledd, who hitherto had sat with a slight smile on his lean Yankee
+face, now looked at Roger with keener interest.
+
+"Yes," said Roger, "I shall go home by way of Sunda Strait."
+
+"Now surely, Captain Hamlin, that would be folly; there are other courses."
+
+"But none so direct."
+
+"A long way round is often the shortest way home. Why, bless my soul, that
+would be to back your sails in the face of Providence."
+
+Roger leaned forward. "Why should I not go home by way of Sunda Strait?"
+
+"Why, my dear sir, if any one were--er-er--to wish you harm,--and if your
+own story is to be believed, there are those who do wish you harm,--Sunda
+Strait, of all places in the world, is the easiest to cut you off."
+
+"Mr. Johnston, that is nonsense," said Roger. "Such things don't happen. I
+will go home by way of Sunda Strait."
+
+"But, Captain Hamlin,--" the good man rubbed his hands more nervously than
+ever,--"but, Captain Hamlin, bless my soul, I consider it highly
+inadvisable."
+
+Roger smiled. "Sir, I will not back down. By Sunda Strait we came. By Sunda
+Strait we'll return. If any man wishes to see us there--" He finished the
+sentence with another smile.
+
+Mr. Cledd spoke up sharply. "Ay, and if a certain man we all know of should
+appear, I'm thinking he'd be unpleasantly surprised to find me aboard."
+
+Mr. Johnston rubbed his hands and tapped the table and rubbed his hands
+again. So comfortable did he appear, and so well-fed, that he seemed quite
+out of place in that severely plain cabin, beside Roger and Mr. Cledd. That
+he had a certain mercantile shrewdness I was ready to admit; but the others
+were men fearless and quick to act.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he said at last, beating a tattoo on the table with his
+soft fingers. "Bless my soul!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THROUGH SUNDA STRAIT
+
+
+Laden deep with tea and silk, we dropped down the Chu-Kiang, past Macao and
+the Ladrone Islands, and out through the Great West Channel. Since the
+northeast monsoon now had set in and the winds were constant, we soon
+passed the tide-rips of St. Esprit, and sighting only a few small islands
+covered with brush and mangroves, where the seas broke in long lines of
+silver under an occasional cocoanut palm, we left astern in due time the
+treacherous water of the Paracel Reefs.
+
+Each day was much like every other until we had put the China Sea behind
+us. We touched at the mouth of the Saigon, but found no promise of trade,
+and weighed anchor again with the intention of visiting Singapore. Among
+other curious things, we saw a number of pink porpoises and some that were
+mottled pink and white and brown. Porpoises not infrequently are spotted by
+disease; but those that we saw appeared to be in excellent health, and
+although we remarked on their odd appearance, we believed their strange
+colors to be entirely natural. A fleet of galleys, too, which we saw in the
+offing, helped break the monotony of our life. There must have been fifty
+of them, with flags a-flutter and arms bristling. Although we did not
+approach them near enough to learn more about them, it seemed probable that
+they were conveying some great mandarin or chief on affairs of state.
+
+"That man Blodgett is telling stories of one kind or another," Mr. Cledd
+remarked one afternoon, after watching a little group that had gathered by
+the forecastle-hatch during the first dog-watch. "The fortuneteller fellow,
+too, Benson, is stirring up the men."
+
+As I looked across the water at the small island of palms where the waves
+were rolling with a sullen roar, which carried far on the evening air, I
+saw a native boat lying off the land, and dimly through the mists I saw the
+sail of an old junk. I watched the junk uneasily. Small wonder that the men
+were apprehensive, I thought.
+
+After leaving Singapore, we passed the familiar shores of eastern Sumatra,
+Banka Island and Banka Strait, and the mouths of the Palambang, but in an
+inverted order, which made them seem as strange as if we never before had
+sighted them. Then one night, heading west against the tide, we anchored in
+a rolling swell, with Kodang Island to the northeast and Sindo Island to
+the north. On the one hand were the Zutphen Islands; on the other was Hog
+Point; and almost abeam of us the Sumatran coast rose to the steep bluff
+that across some miles of sea faces the Java shore. We lay in Sunda Strait.
+
+I came on deck after a while and saw the men stirring about.
+
+"They're uneasy," said Mr. Cledd.
+
+"I'm not surprised," I replied.
+
+The trees on the high summit of the island off which we lay were
+silhouetted clearly against the sky. What spying eyes might not look down
+upon us from those wooded heights? What lawless craft might not lurk beyond
+its abrupt headlands?
+
+"No, I don't wonder, either," said Mr. Cledd, thoughtfully.
+
+At daybreak we again weighed anchor and set sail. Three or four times a
+far-away vessel set my heart leaping, but each in turn passed and we saw it
+no more. A score of native proas manoeuvring at a distance singly or by
+twos caused Roger to call up the watch and prepare for any eventuality; but
+they vanished as silently as they had appeared. At nightfall we once more
+hove to, having made but little progress, and lay at anchor until dawn.
+
+In the darkness that night the cook came up to me in the waist whither I
+had wandered, unable to sleep. "Mistah Lathrop," he muttered, "Ah don't
+like dis yeh nosing and prying roun' islands whar a ship's got to lay up
+all night jes' like an ol' hen with a mess of chickens."
+
+We watched phosphorescent waves play around the anchor cable. The spell of
+uneasiness weighed heavily on us both.
+
+The next evening, still beating our way against adverse winds, we rounded
+Java Head, which seemed so low by moonlight that I scarcely could believe
+it was the famous promontory beyond which lay the open sea. I went to my
+stateroom, expecting once again to sleep soundly all night long. Certainly
+it seemed now that all our troubles must be over. Yet I could not compose
+myself. After a time I came on deck, and found topsails and royals set and
+Mr. Cledd in command.
+
+"All goes well, Mr. Lathrop," he said with a smile, "but that darky cook
+seems not to believe it. He's prowling about like an old owl."
+
+"Which is he?" I asked; for several of the men were pacing the deck and at
+the moment I could not distinguish between them.
+
+"They do seem to be astir. That nearest man walks like Blodgett. Has the
+negro scared them all?"
+
+When, just after Mr. Cledd had spoken, Blodgett came aft, we were
+surprised; but he approached us with an air of suppressed excitement, which
+averted any reprimand Mr. Cledd may have had in mind.
+
+"If you please, sir," he said, "there's a sail to windward."
+
+"To windward? You're mistaken. You ought to call out if you see a sail, but
+it's just as well you didn't this time."
+
+Mr. Cledd turned his back on Blodgett after looking hard up the wind.
+
+"If you please, sir, I've got good eyes." Blodgett's manner was such that
+no one could be seriously offended by his persistence.
+
+"My eyes are good, too," Mr. Cledd replied rather sharply. "I see no
+sail."
+
+Nor did I.
+
+Blodgett leaned on the rail and stared into the darkness like a cat. "If
+you please, sir," he said, "I beg your pardon, but I _can_ see a sail."
+
+Now, for the first time I thought that I myself saw something moving. "I
+see a bank of fog blowing westward," I remarked, "but I don't think it's a
+sail."
+
+After a moment, Mr. Cledd spoke up frankly. "I'll take back what I've just
+said. I see it too. It's only a junk, but I suppose we'd better call the
+captain."
+
+"Only a junk!" Blodgett repeated sharply. "When last we saw 'em, a junk was
+all they had."
+
+"What's that?" Mr. Cledd demanded.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, they was sailing away in a junk, sir."
+
+Mr. Cledd stepped to the companionway. "Captain Hamlin," he called.
+
+The junk was running free when we first sighted her, but just as she was
+passing astern of us, she began to come slowly about. I could see a great
+number of men swaying in unison against the helm that controlled the
+gigantic rudder. Others were bracing the curious old sails.
+
+"I wish she were near enough for us to watch them handle the sails on the
+after masts," I said.
+
+She had a pair of mizzen-masts, one on the larboard side, one on the
+starboard, and I was puzzled to know how they were used.
+
+"She'll pass close aboard on this next tack," Mr. Cledd replied. "I think
+we'll be able to see." He had paused to watch her manoeuvres.
+
+"Here's the doctor," Blodgett murmured.
+
+Black Frank was coming aft with a quick humpy walk. "'Scuse me, sah, 'scuse
+me!" he said. "But I's skeered that we--"
+
+Mr. Cledd now had gone to the companion. "Captain Hamlin," he called again,
+"there's a junk passing close aboard."
+
+I heard Roger's step on the companion-way. It later transpired that he had
+not heard the first summons.
+
+"Mah golly! Look dah!" the cook exclaimed.
+
+The junk was looming up dangerously.
+
+Mr. Cledd caught my arm. "Run forward quick--quick--call up all hands," he
+cried. Then raising the trumpet, "Half a dozen of you men loose the
+cannon."
+
+Leaping to the spar deck, I ran to do his bidding, for the junk now was
+bearing swiftly down upon us. On my way to the forecastle-hatch I noted the
+stacked pikes and loaded muskets by the mainmast, and picked out the most
+likely cover from which to fire on possible boarders. That my voice was
+shaking with excitement, I did not realize until I had sent my summons
+trembling down into the darkness.
+
+I heard the men leaping from their bunks; I heard Roger giving sharp
+commands from the quarter-deck; I heard voices on the junk. By accident or
+by malice, she inevitably was going to collide with the Island Princess. As
+we came up into the wind with sails a-shiver, I scurried back to the stack
+of muskets.
+
+Neddie Benson was puffing away just behind me. "I didn't ought to 'ave
+come," he moaned. "I had my warning. Oh, it serves me right--I might 'a'
+married the lady."
+
+"Bah, that's no way for a _man_ to talk," cried Davie Paine.
+
+It all was so unreal that I felt as if I were looking at a picture. It did
+not seem as if it could be Ben Lathrop who was standing shoulder to
+shoulder with Neddie Benson and old Davie. There was running and calling on
+all sides and aloft. Blocks were creaking as the men hauled at braces and
+halyards; and when the ship rolled I saw that the men on the yard-arms were
+shaking the courses from the gaskets. Although our crew was really too
+small to work the ship and fight at the same time, it was evident that
+Roger intended so far as possible to do both.
+
+But meanwhile the junk had worn ship and she still held her position to
+windward. Suddenly there came from her deck the flash of a musket and a
+loud report. Then another and another. Then Roger's voice sounded sharply
+above the sudden clamor and our own long gun replied.
+
+Flame from its muzzle burst in the faces of the men at the bow of the junk,
+and the ball, mainly by chance, I suppose, hit her foremast and brought
+down mast and sail. Then the junk came about and bumped into us abreast,
+with a terrific crash that stove in the larboard bulwark and showered us
+with fragments of carved and gilded wood broken from her towering bow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+PIKES, CUTLASSES, AND GUNS
+
+
+As I hastily poured powder into the pan of my musket, a man sprang to our
+deck and dashed at Davie Paine, who thrust out a pike and impaled him as if
+he were a fowl on a spit, then reached for a musket. Another came and
+another; I saw them leap down singly. One of our new men whom we had signed
+at Canton raised his cutlass and sliced down the third man to board us;
+then they came on in an overwhelming stream.
+
+Seeing that it would be suicide to attempt to maintain our ground, and that
+we already were cut off from the party on the quarter-deck, we retreated
+forward, fighting off the enemy as we went, and ten or a dozen of us took
+our stand on the forecastle.
+
+Kipping and Falk and the beach-combers they had gathered together had
+conducted their campaign well. Some half of us were forward, half aft, so
+that we could not fire on the boarders without danger of hitting our own
+men. Davie Paine clubbed his musket and felled a strange white man, and
+Neddie Benson went down with a bullet through his thigh; then the pirates
+surged forward and almost around us. Before we realized what was happening,
+we had been forced back away from Neddie and had retreated to the
+knightheads. We saw a beast of a yellow ruffian stab Neddie with a kris,
+then one of our own men saw a chance to dart back under the very feet of
+our enemies and lay hold of Neddie's collar and drag him groaning up to us.
+
+They came at us hotly, and we fought them off with pikes and cutlasses; but
+we were breathing hard now and our arms ached and our feet slipped. The
+circle of steel blades was steadily drawing closer.
+
+That the end of our voyage had come, I was convinced, but I truly was not
+afraid to die. It was no credit to me; simply in the heat of action I found
+no time for fear. Parry and slash! Slash and parry! Blood was in my eyes. A
+cut burned across my right hand. My musket had fallen underfoot and I
+wielded a rusty blade that some one else had dropped. Fortunately the flesh
+wound I got from the musket-ball in our other battle had healed cleanly,
+and no lameness handicapped me.
+
+We had no idea what was going on aft, and for my own part I supposed that
+Roger and the rest were in straits as sore as our own; but suddenly a
+tremendous report almost deafened us, and when our opponents turned to see
+what had happened we got an instant's breathing-space.
+
+"It's the stern-chasers," Davie gasped. "They've faced 'em round!"
+
+The light of a torch flared up and I saw shadowy shapes darting this way
+and that.
+
+There were two cannon; but only one shot had been fired.
+
+Suddenly Davie seized me by the shoulder. "See! See there!" he cried
+hoarsely in my ear.
+
+I turned and followed his finger with my eyes. High on the stern of the
+junk, black against the starlit sky, I saw the unmistakable figure of
+Kipping. He was laughing--mildly. The outline of his body and the posture
+and motion of his head and shoulders all showed it. Then he leaped to the
+deck and we lost sight of him. Where he had mustered that horde of
+slant-eyed pirates, we never stopped to wonder. We had no time for idle
+questions.
+
+I know that I, for one, finding time during the lull in the fighting to
+appraise our chances, expected to die there and then. A vastly greater
+force was attacking us, and we were divided as well as outnumbered. But if
+we were to die, we were determined to die fighting; so with our backs to
+the bulwark and with whatever weapons we had been able to snatch up in our
+hands, we defended ourselves as best we could and had no more respite to
+think of what was going on aft.
+
+Only one stern gun, you remember, had been fired. Now the second spoke.
+
+There was a yell of anguish as the ball cut through the midst of the
+pirates, a tremendous crash that followed almost instantly the report of
+the cannon, a sort of brooding hush, then a thunderous reverberation
+compared with which all other noises of the night had been as nothing.
+
+Tongues of flame sprang skyward and a ghastly light shot far out on the
+sea. The junk heaved back, settled, turned slowly over and seemed to spread
+out into a great mass of wreckage. Pieces of timber and plank and spar came
+tumbling down and a few men scrambled to our decks. We could hear others
+crying out in the water, as they swam here and there or grasped at planks
+and beams to keep themselves afloat.
+
+
+The cannon ball had penetrated the side of the junk and had exploded a
+great store of gunpowder.
+
+Part of the wreckage of the junk was burning, and the flames threw a red
+glare over the strange scene aboard the ship, where the odds had been so
+suddenly altered. Our assailants, who but a moment before had had us at
+their mercy, now were confounded by the terrific blow they had received;
+instead of fighting the more bravely because no retreat was left them, they
+were confused and did not know which way to turn.
+
+Davie Paine, sometimes so slow-witted, seemed now to grasp the situation
+with extraordinary quickness. "Come on, lads," he bellowed, "we've got 'em
+by the run."
+
+Again clubbing his musket, he leaped into the gangway so ferociously that
+the pirates scrambled over the side, brown men and white, preferring to
+take their chances in the sea. As he charged on, I lost sight of him in the
+maelstrom of struggling figures. On my left a Lascar was fighting for his
+life against one of our new crew. On every side men were splashing and
+shouting and cursing.
+
+Now, high above the uproar, I heard a voice, at once familiar and strange.
+For a moment I could not place it; it had a wild note that baffled me. Then
+I saw black Frank, cleaver in hand, come bounding out of the darkness. His
+arms and legs, like the legs of some huge tarantula, flew out at all angles
+as he ran, and in fierce gutturals he was yelling over and over again:--
+
+"Whar's dat Kipping?"
+
+He peered this way and that.
+
+"Whar's dat Kipping?"
+
+Out of the corner of my eye I saw some one stir by the deck-house, and the
+negro, seeing him at the same moment, leaped at my own conclusion.
+
+In doubt whither to flee, too much of a coward at heart either to throw
+himself overboard or to face his enemy if there was any chance of escape,
+the unhappy Kipping hesitated one second too long. With a mighty lunge the
+negro caught him by the throat, and for a moment the two swayed back and
+forth in the open space between us and our enemies.
+
+I thought of the night when they had fought together in the galley door.
+Momentarily Kipping seemed actually to hold his own against the mad negro;
+but his strength was of despair and almost at once we saw that it was
+failing.
+
+"Stop!" Kipping cried. "I'll yield! Stop--stop! Don't kill me!"
+
+For a moment the negro hesitated. He seemed bewildered; his very passion
+seemed to waver. Then I saw that Kipping, all the while holding the negro's
+wrist with his left hand, was fumbling for his sheath-knife with his right.
+With basest treachery he was about to knife his assailant at the very
+instant when he himself was crying for quarter. My shout of warning was
+lost in the general uproar; but the negro, though taken off his guard, had
+himself perceived Kipping's intentions.
+
+By a sudden jerk he shook Kipping's hand off his wrist and raised high his
+sharp weapon.
+
+From the shadow of the deck-house one of Kipping's own adherents sprang to
+his rescue, but Davie Paine--blundering old Davie!--knocked him flat.
+
+For an instant the cook's weapon shone bright in the glare of the torches.
+Kipping snatched vainly at the black wrist above him, then jerked his knife
+clean out of the sheath--but too late.
+
+"Ah got you now, you pow'ful fighter, you! Ah got you now, you dirty scut!"
+the cook yelled, and with one blow of his cleaver he split Kipping's skull
+to the chin.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+When at last we braced the yards and drew away from the shattered fragments
+of the junk, which were drifting out to sea, we found that of the lawless
+company that so confidently had expected to murder us all, only five living
+men, one of whom was Captain Nathan Falk, were left aboard. They were a
+glum and angry little band of prisoners.
+
+Lights and voices ashore indicated that some of our assailants had saved
+themselves, and by their cries and confused orders we knew that they in
+turn were rescuing others. Of their dead we had no record, but the number
+must have been large.
+
+Of us six who had defied Falk in that time long ago, which we had come to
+regard almost as ancient history, only Neddie Benson had fallen. Although
+we had laughed time and again at the charming plump lady who had prophesied
+such terrible events, it had proved in bitter earnest a sad last voyage for
+Neddie.
+
+From the low and distant land there continued to come what seemed to be
+only faint whispers of sound, yet we knew that they really were the cries
+of men fighting for their lives where the sea beat against the shore.
+
+"Ah wonder," said the cook, grimly, "how dem yeh scalliwaggles gwine git
+along come Judgment when Gab'el blows his ho'n and Peter rattles his keys
+and all de wicked is a-wailin' and a-weepin' and a-gnashin' and can't git
+in nohow. Yass, sah. Ah guess dis yeh ol' nigger, he's gwine sit on de
+pearly gate and twiddle his toes at 'em."
+
+He folded his arms and stood in the lantern light, with a dreamy expression
+on his grotesque face such as I had seen there once or twice before. When
+he glanced at me with that strange affection shining from his great eyes,
+he seemed like some big, benign dog. Never had I seen a calmer man. It
+seemed impossible that passion ever had contorted those homely black
+features.
+
+But the others were discussing the fate of our prisoners. I heard Roger
+say, "Let me look at them, Mr. Cledd. I'll know them--some of them anyway.
+Ah, Captain Falk? And the carpenter? Well, well, well! We hadn't dared hope
+for the pleasure of your company on the return voyage. In fact, we'd quite
+given it up. I may add that we'd reconciled ourselves to the loss of it."
+
+I now edged toward them, followed by the cook.
+
+"Ay, Mr. Hamlin, it's all very well for you to talk like that," Falk
+replied in a trembling voice from which all arrogance had not yet vanished.
+"I'm lawful master of this here vessel, as you very well know. You're
+nothing but a mutineer and a pirate. Go ahead and kill me! Why don't you?
+You know I can tell a story that will send you to the gallows. What have I
+done, but try to get back the owners' property and defend it? To think that
+I could have knocked you and that addle-pated Ben Lathrop on the head any
+day I wished! And I wished it, too, but Kipping he said--"
+
+Falk stopped suddenly.
+
+"So Kipping had a finger in the pie, did he?" said Roger. "Well, Mr. Falk,
+what did Kipping say?"
+
+Falk bit his lip sullenly and remained silent.
+
+There really was something pathetic in the man's plight. He had been
+ambitious, and ambition alone, which often is a virtue, had gone far to
+contribute to his downfall. In many ways he was so weak! A quality that in
+other men might have led to almost anything good, in him had bred
+resentment and trickery and at last downright crime. He stood there now,
+ruined in his profession, the leader of a defeated band of criminals and
+vagabonds. Yet if he had succeeded in capturing the ship and putting the
+rest of us to death, he could have sailed her home to Salem, and by
+spreading his own version of the mutiny have gained great credit, and
+probably promotion, for himself.
+
+"Well, Chips," said Roger, "I hope you, at least, are pleased with your
+prospects."
+
+The carpenter likewise made no reply.
+
+"Hm, Mr. Cledd, they haven't a great deal to say, have they?"
+
+"Aha," the negro murmured just behind me, "dey's got fine prospec's, dey
+has. Dey's gwine dance, dey is, yass, sah, on de end of a rope, and after
+dey's done dance a while dey's gwine be leetle che'ubs, dey is, and flap
+dey wings and sing sweet on a golden harp. Yass, sah."
+
+The carpenter shot an angry glance at the cook, but no one else paid him
+any attention.
+
+A fire was flaming now on the distant shore. The seas rushed and gurgled
+along the side of the ship. Our lights dipped with the rigging as the ship
+rolled and tossed, now lifting her dripping sides high out of water, now
+plunging them again deep into the trough.
+
+"Mr. Cledd, I think we can spare those five men a boat," Roger said, after
+a time.
+
+"You're not going to let them go!" Mr. Cledd exclaimed.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Mr. Cledd raised his eyebrows, but silently acceded.
+
+I thought that an expression of relief crossed Falk's face, yet dismay was
+mingled with it. Those were dark, inhospitable lands to leeward. The
+carpenter opened his mouth as if to speak, closed it without a word, and
+vacantly stared at Roger. The rest of us exchanged glances of surprise.
+
+When we had hove to, they lowered the boat, fumbling at the falls while
+they did so, as if they were afraid to leave the ship. The seas caught the
+boat and bumped it against the side, but Falk still lingered, even when
+Roger indicated by a gesture that he was to go.
+
+"Ay," he cried, "it's over the side and away. You're sending us to our
+death, Mr. Hamlin."
+
+"To your death?" said Roger. "Sir, do you wish to return with us to Salem?"
+
+Falk glared sullenly, but made no reply.
+
+"Sir," Roger repeated sharply, "do you wish to return with us to Salem?"
+
+Still there was no response.
+
+"Ah, I thought not. Stay here, if you wish. I shall have you put in irons;
+I should not be justified in any other course. But in Salem we'll lay our
+two stories before the owners--ay, and before the law. Then, sir, if you
+are in the right and I am in the wrong, your triumph will repay you many
+times over for the discomforts of a few months in irons. No? Will you not
+come?"
+
+Still Falk did not reply.
+
+"Sir," Roger sternly cried, "if I were to take you back a prisoner to
+Salem, you'd go to the gallows by way of the courts. Here you can steer
+your own course--though in all probability the port will be the same."
+
+Without another word Falk went over the side, and down by the chains to the
+boat that was bumping below. But before we cast off the painter, he looked
+up at us in the light of a lantern that some one held over the bulwark and
+cried bitterly, "I hope, Mr. Hamlin, you're satisfied now. I'm rightful
+master of that vessel in spite of all your high-handed tricks."
+
+For the first time I noticed the marks of wounds that he had got in the
+fight off the island. His face was white and his eyes were at once fierce
+and hunted.
+
+"You're mistaken," Roger replied. "I have papers from the firm's agent that
+appoint me as master." Then he laughed softly and added, "But any time you
+wish to carry our little dispute to the courts, you'll find me ready and
+willing to meet you there. Too ready, Mr. Falk, for your own good. No, Mr.
+Falk, it's better for you that you leave us here. Go your own gait. May you
+fare better than you deserve!"
+
+We cast off the painter, and they rowed into the dark toward the shore of
+Java. They were men of broken fortunes, whose only hope for life lay in a
+land infested with cut-throat desperadoes. I thought of Kipping who lay
+dead on our deck. It seemed to me after all that Falk had got the worse
+punishment; he had aspired to better things; weak though he was, there had
+been the possibility of much good in his future. Now his career was
+shattered; never again could he go home to his own country.
+
+Yet when all was said and done, it was more merciful to set him adrift than
+to bring him home to trial. Though he must suffer, he would suffer alone.
+The punishment that he so fully deserved would not be made more bitter by
+his knowing that all who knew him knew of his ruined life.
+
+"Poor Falk!" I thought, and was amazed at myself for thinking almost kindly
+of him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+"SO ENDS"
+
+
+Through the watches that followed I passed as if everything were unreal;
+they were like a succession of nightmares, and to this day they are no more
+than shadows on my memory. Working in silence, the men laid the dead on
+clean canvas and washed down the decks; cut away wreckage, cleared the
+running rigging, and replaced with new sails those that had been cut or
+burned in battle. Then came the new day with its new duties; and a sad day
+it was for those of us who had stood together through so many hardships,
+when Neddie Benson went over the side with a prayer to speed him. We were
+homeward bound with all sail set, but things that actually had happened
+already seemed incredible, and concerning the future we could only
+speculate.
+
+We had gone a long way on our journey toward the Cape of Good Hope before
+our new carpenter had repaired the broken bulwark and the various other
+damages the ship had suffered, and before the rigging was thoroughly
+restored. Weeks passed, their monotony broken only by the sight of an
+occasional sail; days piled on end, morning and night, night and morning,
+until weeks had become months. In the fullness of time we rounded Good
+Hope, and now swiftly with fair winds, now slowly with foul, we worked up
+to the equator, then home across the North Atlantic.
+
+On the afternoon of a bright day in the fall, more than a year after we
+first had set sail, we passed Baker Island and stood up Salem Harbor.
+
+Bleak and bare though they were, the rough, rocky shores were home. To
+those of us who hailed from Salem, every roof and tree gave welcome after
+an absence of eighteen months. Already, we knew, reports of our approach
+would have spread far and wide. Probably a dozen good old captains,
+sweeping the sea, each with his glass on his "captain's walk," had sighted
+our topsails while we were hull down and had cried out that Joseph Whidden
+was home again. Such was the penetration of seafaring men in those good old
+days when they recognized a ship and its master while as yet they could spy
+nothing more than topgallantsails.
+
+We could see the people gathering along the shore and lining the wharf and
+calling and cheering and waving hands. We thought of our comrades whom we
+had left in far seas; we longed and feared to ask a thousand questions
+about those at home, of whom we had thought so tenderly and so often.
+
+Already boats were putting out to greet us; and now, in the foremost of
+them, one of the younger Websters stood up. "Mr. Hamlin, ahoy!" he called,
+seeing Roger on the quarter-deck. "Where is Captain Whidden?"
+
+Roger did not answer until the boat had come fairly close under the rail,
+and meanwhile young Webster stood looking up at him as if more than half
+expecting bad news.
+
+Only when the boat was so near that each could see the other's expression
+and hear every inflection of the other's voice, did Roger reply.
+
+"He is dead."
+
+"We heard a story," young Webster cried in great excitement, coming briskly
+aboard. "One Captain Craigie, brig Eve late from Bencoolen, brought it. An
+appalling tale of murder and mutiny. As he had it, the men mutinied against
+Mr. Thomas and against Mr. Falk when he assumed command. They seized the
+ship and killed Mr. Thomas and marooned Mr. Falk, who, while Captain
+Craigie was thereabouts, hustled a crew of fire-eating Malays and white
+adventurers and bought a dozen barrels of powder and set sail with a fleet
+of junks to retake the ship. But that, of course, is stuff and nonsense.
+Where's Falk?"
+
+"Falk," said Roger with a wry smile, "decided to spend the rest of his days
+at the Straits."
+
+"Oh!" Young Webster looked hard at Roger and then looked around the deck.
+All was ship-shape, but there were many strange faces.
+
+"Oh," he said again. "And you--" He stopped short.
+
+"And I?" Roger repeated.
+
+Again young Webster looked around the ship. He bit his lip. "What is _your_
+story, Mr. Hamlin?" he said sharply.
+
+"Is your father here, Mr. Webster?" Roger asked.
+
+"No," the young man replied stiffly, "he is at Newburyport, but I have no
+doubt whatsoever that he will return at once when he hears you have
+arrived. This seems to be a strange situation, Mr. Hamlin. Who is in
+command here?"
+
+"I am, sir."
+
+"Oh!" After a time he added, "I heard rumors, but I refused to credit
+them."
+
+"What do you mean by that, sir?" Roger asked.
+
+"Oh, nothing much, sir. You evaded my question. What is _your_ story?"
+
+"_My_ story?" Roger looked him squarely in the eye. In Roger's own eyes
+there was the glint of his old humorous twinkle, and I knew that the young
+man's bustling self-importance amused him.
+
+"My story?" Roger repeated. "Why, such a story as I have to tell, I'll tell
+your father when I report to him."
+
+Young Webster reddened. "Oh!" he said with a sarcastic turn of his voice.
+"Stuff and nonsense! It may be--or it may not." And with that he stationed
+himself by the rail and said no more.
+
+When at last we had come to anchor and young Webster had gone hastily
+ashore and we had exchanged greetings at a distance with a number of
+acquaintances, Roger and Mr. Cledd and I sat down--perhaps more promptly
+than need be--over our accounts in the great cabin. I felt bitterly
+disappointed that none of my own people had come to welcome me; but
+realizing how silly it was to think that they surely must know of our
+arrival, I jumped at Roger's suggestion that we gather up our various
+documents and then leave Mr. Cledd in charge--he was not a Salem man--and
+hurry home as fast as we could go.
+
+As we bent to our work, Mr. Cledd remarked with a dry smile, "I'm thinking,
+sir, there's going to be more of a sting to this pirate-and-mutiny business
+than I'd believed. That smug, sarcastic young man means trouble or I've no
+eye for weather."
+
+"He's the worst of all the Websters," Roger replied thoughtfully. "And I'll
+confess that Captain Craigie's story knocks the wind out of _my_ canvas.
+Who'd have looked for a garbled story of our misfortunes to outsail us?
+However,--" he shook his head and brushed away all such anxieties,--"time
+will tell. Now, gentlemen, to our accounts."
+
+Before we had more than got well started, I heard a voice on deck that
+brought me to my feet.
+
+There was a step on the companionway, and then, "Father!" I cried, and
+leaped up with an eagerness that, boy-like, I thought I concealed with
+painstaking dignity when I shook his hand.
+
+"Come, come, come, you young rascals!" my father cried. "What's the meaning
+of this? First hour in the home port and you are as busy at your books as
+if you were old students like myself. Come, put by your big books and your
+ledgers, lads. Roger, much as I hate to have to break bad news, your family
+are all in Boston, so--more joy to us!--there's nothing left but you shall
+come straight home with Benny here. Unless, that is--" my father's eyes
+twinkled just as Roger's sometimes did--"unless you've more urgent business
+elsewhere."
+
+"I thank you, sir," said Roger, "but I have _no_ more urgent business, and
+I shall be--well, delighted doesn't half express it."
+
+His manner was collected enough, but at my father's smile he reddened and
+his own eyes danced.
+
+"Pack away your books and come along, then. There's some one will be glad
+to see you besides Benny's mother. Leave work till morning. I'll wager come
+sun-up you'll be glad enough to get to your tasks if you've had a little
+home life meanwhile. Come, lads, come."
+
+Almost before we fully could realize what it meant, we were walking up to
+the door of my own home, and there was my mother standing on the threshold,
+and my sister, her face as pink now as it had been white on the day long
+ago when she had heard that Roger was to sail as supercargo.
+
+Many times more embarrassed than Roger, whom I never had suspected of such
+shamelessness, I promptly turned my back on him and my sister; where upon
+my father laughed aloud and drew me into the house. From the hall I saw
+the dining-table laid with our grandest silver, and, over all, the
+towering candle-sticks that were brought forth only on state occasions.
+
+"And now, lads," said my father, when we sat before such a meal as only
+returning prodigals can know, "what's this tale of mutiny and piracy with
+which the town's been buzzing these two weeks past? Trash, of course."
+
+"Why, sir, I think we've done the right thing," said Roger, "and yet I
+can't say that it's trash."
+
+When my father had heard the story he said so little that he frightened me;
+and my mother and sister exchanged anxious glances.
+
+"Of course," Roger added, "we are convinced absolutely, and if that fellow
+hadn't got away at Whampoa, we'd have proof of Kipping's part in it--"
+
+"But he got away," my father interposed, "and I question if his word is
+good for much, in any event. Poor Joseph Whidden! We were boys together."
+
+He shortly left the table, and a shadow seemed to have fallen over us. We
+ate in silence, and after supper Roger and my sister went into the garden
+together. What, I wondered, was to become of us now?
+
+That night I dreamed of courts and judges and goodness knows what penalties
+of the law, and woke, and dreamed again, and slept uneasily until the
+unaccustomed sound of some one pounding on our street door waked me in the
+early morning.
+
+After a time a servant answered the loudly repeated summons. Low voices
+followed, then I heard my father open his own door and go out into the
+hall.
+
+"Is that you, Tom Webster?" he called.
+
+"It is. I'm told you've two of my men here in hiding. Rout 'em out. What
+brand of discipline do you call this? All hands laying a-bed at four in the
+morning. I've been up all night. Called by messenger just as I turned in at
+that confounded tavern, charged full price for a night's lodging,--curse
+that skinflint Hodges!--and took a coach that brought me to Salem as fast
+as it could clip over the road. I'm too fat to straddle a horse. Come,
+where's Hamlin and that young scamp of yours?"
+
+I scrambled out of bed and was dressing as fast as I could, when I heard
+Roger also in the hall.
+
+"Aha! Here he is," Mr. Webster cried. "Fine sea-captain you are, you young
+mutineer, laying abed at cockcrow! Come, stir a leg there. I've been aboard
+ship this morning, after a ride that was like to shake my liver into my
+boots. Where's Ben Lathrop? Come, come, you fine-young-gentleman
+supercargo."
+
+Crying, "Here I am," I pulled on my boots and joined the others in the
+lower hall, and the three of us, Mr. Webster, Roger, and I, hurried down
+the street in time to the old man's testy exclamations, which burst out
+fervently and often profanely whenever his lame foot struck the
+ground harder than usual. "Pirates--mutineers--young cubs--laying abed--
+cockcrow--" and so on, until we were in a boat and out on the harbor, where
+the Island Princess towered above the morning mist.
+
+"Lathrop'll row us," the old man snapped out. "Good for him--stretch his
+muscles."
+
+Coming aboard the ship, we hailed the watch and went directly to the cabin.
+
+"Now," the old man cried, "bring out your log-book and your papers."
+
+He slowly scanned the pages of the log and looked at our accounts with a
+searching gaze that noted every figure, dot and comma. After a time he
+said, "Tell me everything."
+
+It was indeed a strange story that Roger told, and I thought that I read
+incredulity in the old man's eyes; but he did not interrupt the narrative
+from beginning to end. When it was done, he spread his great hands on the
+table and shot question after question, first at one of us, then at the
+other, indicating by his glance which he wished to answer him.
+
+"When first did you suspect Falk?--What proof had you?--Did Captain Whidden
+know anything from the start?--How do you know that Falk was laying for Mr.
+Thomas?--Do you know the penalty for mutiny?--Do you know the penalty for
+piracy?--Hand out your receipts for all money paid over at Canton.--Who in
+thunder gave you command of my ship?--Do you appreciate the seriousness of
+overthrowing the lawful captain?--How in thunder did you force that paper
+out of Johnston?"
+
+His vehemence and anger seemed to grow as he went on, and for twenty
+minutes he snapped out his questions till it seemed as if we were facing a
+running fire of musketry. His square, smooth-shaven chin was thrust out
+between his bushy side-whiskers, and his eyes shot fiercely, first at
+Roger, then at me.
+
+A small swinging lantern lighted the scene. Its rays made the corners seem
+dark and remote. They fell on the rough features of the old merchant
+mariner who owned the ship and who so largely controlled our fortunes,
+making him seem more irascible than ever, and faded out in the early
+morning light that came in through the deadlights.
+
+At last he placed his hands each on the opposite shoulder, planted his
+elbows on the table, and fiercely glared at us while he demanded, "Have you
+two young men stopped yet to think how it'll seem to be hanged?"
+
+The lantern swung slowly during the silence that followed. The shadows
+swayed haltingly from side to side.
+
+"No," cried Roger hotly, "we have not, Captain Webster. We've been too busy
+looking after _your_ interests."
+
+The scar where the case-knife had slashed his cheek so long ago stood
+starkly out from the dull red of his face.
+
+At that the old man threw back his head and burst into a great guffaw of
+laughter. He laughed until the lantern trembled, until his chair leaned so
+far back that I feared he was about to fall,--or hoped he was,--until it
+seemed as if the echoes must come booming back from the farthest shore.
+
+"Lads, lads!" he cried, "you're good lads. You're the delight of an old
+man's heart! You've done fine! Roger Hamlin, I've a new ship to be finished
+this summer. You shall be master, if you'll be so kind, for an old man that
+wishes you well, and"--here he slyly winked at me--"on the day you take a
+wife, there'll come to your bride a kiss and a thousand dollars in gold
+from Thomas Webster. As for Ben, here, he's done fine as supercargo of the
+old Island Princess,--them are good accounts, boy,--and I'll recommend he
+sails in the new ship with you."
+
+He stopped short then and looked away as if through the bulkhead and over
+the sea as far, perhaps, as Sunda Strait, and the long line of Sunda
+Islands bending like a curved blade to guard the mysteries of the East
+against such young adventurers as we.
+
+After a time he said in a very different voice, "I was warned of one man in
+the crew, just after you sailed." His fingers beat a dull tattoo on the
+polished table. "It was too late then to help matters, so I said never a
+word--not even to my own sons. But--" the old man's voice hardened--"if
+Nathan Falk ever again sets foot on American soil he'll hang higher than
+ever Haman hung, if I have to build the gallows with my own two hands, Mr.
+Hamlin--ay, he or any man of his crew. The law and I'll work together to
+that end, Mr. Hamlin."
+
+So for a long time we sat and talked of one thing and another.
+
+When at last we went on deck, Mr. Cledd spoke to Roger of something that
+had happened early in the watch. I approached them idly, overheard a phrase
+or two and joined them.
+
+"It was the cook," Mr. Cledd was saying. "He was trying to sneak aboard in
+the dark. I don't think he had been drinking. I can't understand it. He had
+a big bag of dried apples and said that was all he went for. I don't like
+to discipline a man so late in the voyage."
+
+"Let it pass," Roger replied. "Cook's done good work for us."
+
+I didn't understand then what it meant; but later in the day I heard some
+one say softly, "Mistah Lathrop, Ah done got an apple pie, yass, sah. Young
+gen'lems dey jest got to have pie. You jest come long with dis yeh ol'
+nigger."
+
+There were tears in my eyes when I saw the great pie that the old African
+had baked. I urged him to share it with me, and though for a time he
+refused, at last he hesitantly consented. "Ah dunno," he remarked, "Ah
+dunno as Ah had ought to. Pies, dey's foh young gen'lems and officers, but
+dis yeh is a kind of ambigoo-cous pie--yass, sah, seeing you say so, Ah
+will."
+
+Never did eating bread and salt together pledge a stronger or more enduring
+friendship. To this very day I have the tenderest regard for the old man
+with whom I had passed so many desperate hours.
+
+That old Blodgett and Davie Paine should take our gifts to "the tiny wee
+girl" at Newburyport we all agreed, when they asked the privilege. "It
+ain't but a wee bit to do for a good ship-mate," Blodgett remarked with a
+deprecatory wave of his hand. "I'd do more 'n that for the memory of old
+Bill Hayden." And just before he left for the journey he cautiously
+confided to me, "I've got a few more little tricks I picked up at that 'ere
+temple. It don't do to talk about such trinkets,--not that I'm
+superstitious,--but she'll never tell if she don't know where they come
+from. Ah, Mr. Lathrop, it's sad to lose a fortune, and that's what we done
+when we let all them heathen islands go without a good Christian expedition
+to destroy the idols and relieve them of their ill-gotten gains."
+
+The two departed side by side, with their bundles swung over their
+shoulders. They and the cook had received double wages to reward their
+loyal service, and they carried handsome presents for the little girl of
+whom we had heard so much; but it was a sad mission for which they had
+offered themselves. No gift on all the green earth could take the place of
+poor, faithful old Bill, the father who was never coming home.
+
+That night, when Roger and I again went together to my own father's house,
+eager to tell the news of our good fortune, we found my mother and my
+sister in the garden waiting for us. I was not wise enough then to
+understand that the tears in my mother's eyes were for a young boy and a
+young girl whom she had had but yesterday, but of whom now only memories
+remained--memories, and a youth and a woman grown. Nor could I read the
+future and see the ships of the firm of Hamlin and Lathrop sailing every
+sea. I only thought to myself, as I saw Roger stand straight and tall
+beside my sister, with the white scar on his face, that _there_ was a
+brother of whom I could be proud.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mutineers, by Charles Boardman Hawes
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUTINEERS ***
+
+This file should be named 8mutn10.txt or 8mutn10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8mutn11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8mutn10a.txt
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Lazar Liveanu
+and the PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/old/8mutn10.zip b/old/8mutn10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94ef1fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8mutn10.zip