"Forward," shouted the chief, pulling his lantern out from under his coat. "Drive this yere swell below!"
The rest of the band, having reached the deck almost as soon as their leader, rushed upon the guard, who, after trying in vain to defend himself, threw down his gun and retreated into the cabin.
"Foller him up, lads! Foller him up!" shouted the chief, flourishing his spear in the air. "Cap'n, you an' Friday an' Jack Spaniard look out for that galley!"
By thus dividing his force, Sam had got the students completely surrounded. The chief and his squad followed the sentinel down the companion ladder, while the captain and his men rushed into the galley, and thence into the forecastle, where they surprised four students, asleep in the bunks, and a corporal, nodding in his chair. The noise made by the attacking party, and the bright light that flashed in their faces, when Tom turned up the lamp that hung suspended from the beams overhead, aroused the guard, who, upon beholding the intruders, reached rather hurriedly for their muskets. But they were in the possession of Friday and Jack Spaniard, who pointed the bayonets at them, and in savage tones demanded their surrender.
"Tom Newcombe, is that you?" exclaimed the corporal, rubbing his eyes, and taking a second look at the captain.
"O, yes, it's I," replied Tom, who, excited as he was, could not forget his usual drawl. "You asked me why I didn't carry out my idea last night. I am carrying it out now. Get up, and go into the hold. You are all prisoners!"
"Well, now, I call this a pretty good joke!" exclaimed another, raising up in his bunk, and looking first at Tom, and then at his ragged followers. "How did you get by the sentinel on deck?"
"Why, we captured him, that's the way we got by him! And I think you'll find it's no joke, either, before we are done with you. Get up, and do as I tell you!" he added, sharply, as he heard the students pouring into the hold from the cabin.
The guard had no alternative but to obey. They crawled slowly out of their bunks, and one of them asked, as he gathered up his clothing, and nodded his head toward Friday and Jack Spaniard—
"Are these gentlemen members of your new society, Newcombe? You must be running with a delightful crowd, now."