Just then Chips, who had knocked off work for the night, struck in slowly, laughing heartily the while: “Why don’t you say as you won’t go, my lads? He’s sure to send you then.”
“That’s a good ’un,” said Tom Tully.
“Ah! to be sure,” said the boatswain. “I’m a officer, and can’t do it; but if I was you, seeing as we ought to fetch young Mr Leigh back aboard, I should just give three rattling good cheers.”
“What good would that do?” said Billy Waters dubiously.
“Why, then the skipper would send for one of us to know what’s the matter. ‘Ship’s crew mutinous, sir; says they wouldn’t have gone ashore if they’d been ordered.’”
“Well?” said Billy Waters, “I don’t see that that would have been no good neither.”
“Why, don’t you see? Soon as you says that he claps on his sword, takes his pistols, and orders you all into the boat; and says he, ‘If you dare to come back without Mr Leigh I’ll string one of you up to the yardarm.’”
“That’s it,” chorussed several of the men.
“Yes,” said Billy Waters; “but suppose we do come back without him, and he do string us up—how then?”
“Ah! but he won’t,” said the boatswain. “Men’s too scarce.”