“Who’s knockin’ round in my galley?” demanded the voice of the colored cook. “You-all ain’t got no right to take no food, and you know it! You had your supper. Now you got to wait for breakfas’. Come out o’ there!”
The boys were so taken by surprise that for the instant they did not know what to do. Then Gif whispered to Spouter:
“Let’s try to capture him. If he raises an alarm, we’ll never get away.”
“All right. Let’s jump him, boys!” called out Spouter to the others, and then leaped upon the cook, and Gif followed.
The colored cook was as much surprised as the boys had been, and before he could recover from his astonishment he found himself dragged into the galley and five boys doing their best to bear him to the floor.
“Hi! Hi!” he sputtered. “What you-all up to? Stop that! Let go of me!”
“Shut up! Don’t dare make a sound!” whispered Gif, in his ear. “Shut up!”
“Who is you?” questioned the cook. “Is you one o’ those boys we done took aboard the other day?”
“If you don’t keep quiet, we’ll heave you overboard,” added Fred, although he had no intention of doing anything of the sort.