“Breakfast, first of all, something to eat.�
“Let me go below and get it.�
“No,� I replied, “I must see what’s below first myself.�
“Very well then,� was her prompt, brave answer. She rose as she spoke and seized the spokes of the wheel. “I will steer the ship, only do you hurry back.�
“If I only had a pistol to leave with you,� I said.
“There is no danger,� she answered bravely enough, “there were only four men on the ship you said. One is dead, one is locked up forward, and the other two—�
“I will make sure about them,� I interrupted, going over and examining the lashings of the two.
They were frightened to death and the man with the broken wrist, although I didn’t know it then, was suffering greatly. Their eyes were mutely appealing, but I had no pity to waste. Seeing that they were tightly bound and the hatch forward securely battened, I turned and ran below.
As fortune would have it a brace of pistols lay on the table in the cabin. One of them was loaded and primed and ready for use. It was lucky for me that they had not used it last night, I thought. I snatched it up, returned to the deck, and laid it at my lady’s side. Thereafter I felt much safer for I knew she could use it on occasion. I then went below and resumed my search. The cabin was frightfully untidy and disorderly. Some of the mutineers at least had made it their headquarters and the table was covered with an accumulation of soiled dishes. On a platter I found some cold salt beef and bread and other things. There was no time to be dainty, but I did make shift to clean a plate, heaped it with hard bread and beef, drew a pannikin of water, and returned to the deck with it. We made our first breakfast by the wheel.
I had been thinking hard and I had come to the conclusion that our only safety lay in keeping the three members of the crew securely locked up. If I could have depended upon one of them the problem would have been simplified immensely, and if I could have depended upon two we could have got along with some degree of comfort, for the three of us with the aid of tackles could have handled the ship while my lady steered. But it was not to be thought of.