"I've got over that now, and I am all right again," said Ben. "I only wish I was sitting on my own porch."
"That man must have a power of muscle," said Bob, who was astonished at the ease with which Ben had been captured. "But I don't know but he made a prisoner of me just as easy. I was standing just inside of the gate looking for you, and he said there was something he wanted to speak with me about, and when I turned to lead him to the porch, that was all I knew. I wonder what Hank will say when he knows what his father has been guilty of?"
"We don't care for Hank," said Ben, hotly. "His father has been guilty of murder in the first degree, and we'll jug him for that. But first I must have the opportunity of pounding him. I'll prove to him that Ben Watson ain't the easy man to get away with that he supposed."
"I don't know that we can arrest him for murder in the first degree," began Bob, smiling when he thought of such a thing.
"I'd like to know if he wasn't guilty of murder when he sent us off here?" said Ben. "How did he know but that the mates would knock us overboard if they got half a chance? How did he know but that they would haze us until we would be glad to go to Davy Jones's locker? I tell you one thing, Bob, the mates ain't half so bad as folks allow. I believe we will be treated all right as long as we do our duty. The mates are down on anything that looks like sojering, but they will do fair if we only jump when we hear the word. They have a crew of sailor-men here, and they know it."
"Why, then, you ain't going to desert?" said Bob.
"Yes, I am, if you will go; but if you won't, I won't. Let me tell you: This vessel has a miscellaneous cargo aboard, and is bound on a trading voyage among the islands of the South Pacific. When we strike one of those islands we'll skip."
"That's me. I wish we were there to-night."
"Don't the darky treat you all right?"
"Yes; but I am not used to being ordered around by such a fellow as that second mate. But still I have got to take what is in store for me."