Stepping suddenly forward, I said in a voice so decided that it surprised me as much as anyone, if not more:—
"Mr. Gleazen, I desire to go with you."
"And I," said Arnold Lamont.
"You young pup," Gleazen bellowed, "who are you to desire this or desire that?"
"Then," said I, "I will go with you."
"You will not," he retorted.
I saw out of the corner of my eye that Matterson and O'Hara were looking at me keenly, but I never let my gaze veer from Gleazen's.
"Mr. Gleazen," I said boldly, "Arnold Lamont, Abe Guptil, and I are going to take the places of Pedro, Sanchez, and John Laughlin."
He swore a round oath and stepped toward me with his fists clenched, while the men below us fairly held their breath. In a fist fight the man could have pounded me to a pulp, for he was half as heavy again as I; but at the thought of poor Uncle Seth with all his property tied up in that mad venture, with his happiness and his very life in the absolute power of that band of godless reprobates, something stronger than myself rose up within me. At that moment I verily believe I could have faced the fires of hell without flinching. Thinking of the old days when Uncle Seth and my mother and I had been so happy together and of how kind he had been to me in his own testy, abrupt, reserved way, I stepped out and shook my fist in Gleazen's face.
Before he could say another word, I cried, "So help me, unless we three go with you and those three stay, we'll keep Seth Upham back and sail away in the Adventure and leave you here forever."