THE TABLES ARE SUDDENLY TURNED ON THE CONSPIRATORS.
I began to guess that there was a purpose in this. I saw that the captain had, under a mask of carelessness, a face of anxiety, and that the hand that held his glasses with which he viewed the horizon, trembled never so little as he paced backward and forward while the two men were putting over the boat. When all was ready, Mr. Atkin in the stern-sheets pushed off from the vessel’s side.
“Stop a bit!” now called the captain, as I watched with strong anxiety his face. There was a stern ring in his voice which I had seldom heard. And at the same time I saw Mr. Waters, Dan and the Swede come from the cook’s galley with buckets of hot water which they brought to the rail.
“Well?” asked Atkin with inquiry. And he motioned the two men to cease from rowing.
“You see Teneriffe peak, do you?” again spoke the captain.
“Why, yes, sir,” was the answer of Atkin: “what then?”
“Just this,” said the captain; “my advice to you, you scoundrels, is that you pull your prettiest for the Azore Islands; for while my name is Wray not one of you ever shall set foot again of this brig’s deck!”
Ah, then what oaths! what cries of rage! And so desperate was this villain Atkin that he drew a pistol and commanded his men to pull back, which they did with hesitation. But they were scarce within reach when old Dan discharged the contents of his hot-water bucket full at them. I clapped my hands. I could not resist. For Atkin caught enough of it on his neck and shoulder to cause him to fall backward over the thwart with a roar, and by accident, discharge his pistol in the air.
Then it was they saw they were entrapped, and pulled hastily away to a distance, where they laid upon their oars with angry words each to the other.
And oh, how with eagerness we watched for a breeze, which came not until in the late afternoon. But when once more the ripple of the water made around the bows, and the sails swelled out with a wind from the southwest, I breathed with freeness, and we all thanked the good God as we watched the boat of the conspirators to disappear in the distance.