"I command this ship, sir," replied he.
"Certainly, sir, I am aware of it," rejoined I. "She is now all ready for action again, and I wait your orders. The enemy is two miles on the lee quarter."
The surgeon here came up with his report.
"Good heavens!" said the captain, "forty-seven men killed and wounded, Mr Webster dangerously. Why, the brig is crippled. We can do no more— positively, we can do no more."
"We can take that brig, anyhow," cried one of the seamen from a dozen of the men who were to leeward, expecting orders to renew the attack.
"What man was that?" cried the captain.
No one answered.
"By G——d! this ship is in a state of mutiny, Mr Simple."
"Will soon be, I think," said a voice from the crowd, which I knew very well; but the captain, having been but a short time with us, did not know it.
"Do you hear that, Mr Simple?" cried the captain.