It was done, too. The clerk resisted and remonstrated, but all to no purpose. With the Doctor’s assistance the irons were put on, and Fowler was led out into the cabin, and commanded to sit down with the rest.
The enemy were now all secured, and Frank had the vessel to himself. He meant to keep her, too, so he lost no time in providing for any emergency that might arise. He knew that his prisoners would not permit themselves to be carried back to Hobart Town if they could help it, and if the opportunity were presented, they would make a desperate effort to regain control of the schooner. If Frank had had full confidence in his crew, he would have felt no uneasiness whatever; but there were the three foremast hands, who had once betrayed their trust! True, they had repented, and assisted him in securing the convicts; but might they not also repent of that act, and try to undo it? There was no dependence to be placed in such men. There was one he could trust, and that was the Doctor. Him Frank armed with a loaded musket, and placed as a guard over the convicts, with instructions to shoot the first one who made any effort to free himself from his irons. Then he went on deck, feeling perfectly safe.
Frank’s first care was to bring the schooner about, and shape her course toward Hobart Town, as nearly as he could guess at it, and his next to put it out of the power of the convicts to do any great damage, even if they should succeed in freeing themselves from their irons, and gaining a footing on deck. He and Archie had possession of the only loaded firearms on board, and he did not intend that anybody else should get any without considerable trouble. The mess-chests were emptied of the pots and pans they contained, and the muskets and other small arms belonging to the vessel being packed away in them, the chests were closed and locked. The keys were hidden where no one but himself would ever think of looking for them, and the lids were further secured by being nailed down. The keys to the magazine, which were kept hung up in Uncle Dick’s stateroom, were also concealed, and then Frank told himself that he was master of the vessel. If Waters and his companions should succeed in regaining their liberty, either by stratagem or through the treachery of some of the crew, they would find nothing but handspikes and belaying-pins to fight with, and he and Archie, with their brace of revolvers apiece, could easily overcome them.
When he went into the cabin he told himself that he had been wise in taking all these precautions, for Waters had already been trying to bribe the guard to procure a key and release him. He had offered him a thousand pounds for the service.
“Whar’s you gwine to get so much money to give dis niggah?” the Doctor was saying just as Frank came in.
“Oh, it’s in the strong box,” replied Waters, not at all abashed by the presence of the captain.
“Dat money in dar ’longs to Cap’n Gaylord,” said the Doctor. “’Pears like you’s makin’ mighty free wid oder folk’s money.”
“Go on, Waters,” said Frank. “You told me not to tamper with the men, and I didn’t; but I’ll give you permission to try all your arts on the Doctor. He’s true blue.”
“I call him black,” said Waters.
The Doctor laughed heartily at this joke, and Frank, after glancing at each of the prisoners in turn, went on deck satisfied that he had left them in safe hands. He did not go to bed again that night, and neither did Archie. They and the Doctor relieved one another every two hours in keeping watch over the prisoners; and when not on guard, they stood alternate tricks at the wheel in order to give the three foremast hands a chance to rest.