“Come up out o’ that, you revenue men, and let those boys go to sleep,” said Walter, in a tone of command.
“Belay your jaw,” was the gruff reply. “We take orders from nobody but Tomlinson. Where is he?”
“Here I am,” said the sailor who had held the conversation with Walter. “I’ve the cap’n’s word that we shall be landed in Havana, and no attempts made to humbug us. My name is Tomlinson,” he added, turning to the commander of the yacht. “If you want anything out of these fellers, just speak to me. When does the watch below come on deck?”
“As soon as they’ve had sleep enough. They didn’t close their eyes last night.”
“All right. I say, mates,” continued Tomlinson, addressing his companions in the cabin, “just tumble on to them lockers and go to sleep. You’ll be in that watch, and me and Bob’ll be in the cap’n’s watch; then there’ll be two of us on deck all the time.”
Walter, without waiting to hear whether the sailor had anything else to say, slammed the door of the cabin, and in no amiable frame of mind went forward and joined Perk; while Tomlinson and his companion, after taking a look at the binnacle, stationed themselves in the waist, where they could see all that was going on.
“Well,” said Walter, “what do you think of this?”
“I think that revenue captain must be very stupid to allow six men to desert under his very nose,” replied Perk. “If I had been in his place, I would have known every man who belonged to that prize crew; and I could have told whether or not they were all present without mustering them. What are you going to do?”
“I intend to get rid of them at the earliest possible moment. We shall not be able to make Havana in this wind, but we’ll hit some port on the Cuban coast, and we’ll try to induce these fellows to leave us there. I didn’t agree to find a privateer for them, and I am not going to do it. That revenue cutter has been the cause of more trouble to us than she is worth.”