As I sat there on the locker, thinking matters over, and wondering what would be the outcome of this adventure, I became so absorbed in my own thoughts that I gradually lost all consciousness of my surroundings, and was only brought back to myself by the sounds of a sudden commotion on deck, loud outcries—in which I thought I recognised the voice of the skipper,—a great and violent stamping of feet, and finally an irregular popping of pistols, followed by a sudden subsidence of the disturbance. This, in turn, was followed by sounds of excitement in the cabins on either side of the one which I occupied, and in the distance I could hear the general shouting at the top of his voice. I gathered that the passengers were only now beginning to realise that something was wrong with the ship, and were turning out and dressing hastily. A few minutes later I heard the sounds of cabin doors being flung open, and hurried footsteps went speeding past my cabin toward the companion way which led up to the main-deck. Then the general’s voice breezed up again, from the saloon above, in tones of angry remonstrance, followed by a tremendous amount of excited talk, amid which I thought I once or twice caught the sounds of women’s sobs. It was evident that something very much out of the common had happened, and I came to the conclusion that it was high time for me to be at large again and taking a hand in the proceedings; I therefore whipped out my pocketknife, and without further ado proceeded to withdraw the screws that fastened the lock to the door. Five minutes later I found myself in the main saloon, and the centre of an excited and somewhat terrified group of passengers.
“Ah!” exclaimed the general, as I made my appearance. “Now, perhaps, we shall get at something practical. Here is young Grenvile, who, being a navy man, may be supposed to know how to deal with an awkward situation. Here is a pretty kettle of fish, sir,” he continued, turning to me. “The ship is ashore! The captain has blown his brains out—so they say! And, last but not least, the crew, headed by the boatswain, has mutinied against the authority of Mr Carter—whom they have thrust in here among us—and absolutely refuse to listen to reason in any shape or form! Now I ask you, as an officer in his Most Gracious Majesty’s navy, what is to be done, sir; what are the proper steps to be taken to extricate ourselves from this infernal predicament?”
“The first thing, general,” said I, “is to let me hear Carter’s story, which will probably give me a fairly accurate idea of the precise situation of affairs. Where is he?”
“Here I am, Mr Grenvile,” replied the man himself, edging his way toward me through the crowd.
“Now,” said I, “please tell us precisely what you know about this very extraordinary affair.”
“Well, sir,” was the answer, “I really don’t know so very much about it, when all’s told; but I’m not very greatly surprised. The way that things have been going aboard this ship, ever since poor Cap’n Matthews died, has been enough to prepare a man for anything, mutiny included. I had the middle watch last night, and, as you know—or perhaps you don’t know—it was very overcast and dark all through the watch, so it’s not very surprisin’ that I saw nothing of the land, even if it was in sight—which I doubt, seein’ that it’s low—and Cap’n Williams, who ought to have known that we was drawin’ in close upon the coast, never gave me any warning of the ship’s position, or said anything about keepin’ an extra good look-out, or anything of that sort. Consequently, when the bo’s’un relieved me at four o’clock this mornin’, I didn’t pass on any particular caution to him. As a matter of fact I hadn’t a notion that we were anywhere near the land! Consequently, when the commotion of haulin’ down and clewin’ up awoke me, and when, upon rushin’ out on deck to see what was the matter, I found that the ship was ashore, I was regularly flabbergasted! But I hadn’t much time for surprise, or anything else either, for the skipper was on deck and in charge; and I must confess that the cool way in which he took everything made me think that he wasn’t nearly so surprised at what had happened as by rights he ought to have been.
“Well, we hauled down, clewed up, and furled everything, by which time the daylight had come, and we were able to get a view of our whereabouts. So far as I could make out we seemed to have blundered slap into the mouth of some river, and to have grounded on the inner side of a big sandbank that had formed right athwart it at a distance of about a quarter of a mile to seaward of the general trend of the shore line. We couldn’t have managed better if we’d picked the berth for ourselves; for we’re lyin’ in perfectly smooth water, completely sheltered from the run of the surf; and nothin’ short of a stiff on-shore gale would be at all likely to hurt us.
“The skipper said something about lightening the ship, and ordered the bo’s’un to clear away the boats and see all ready for hoistin’ ’em out, and directed me to go down into the fore-peak and rouse out all the hawsers I could find down there, and send ’em up on deck. I was busy upon this job, with half a dozen hands to help me, when suddenly we heard a terrific rumpus on deck, and the sounds of pistol firing; and when I jumped up on deck to see what all the row was about, there was that villain Tonkin, with a pistol still smokin’ in his hand, talkin’ to the men and tellin’ ’em that as the ship was ashore, and the cap’n gone, all hands were free to please themselves as to whether they’d stick to the hooker or not, and that, for his part, he meant to have a spell ashore for a day or two before decidin’ what next to do.
“Just at that point I interrupted him by askin’ what he meant by sayin’ that the cap’n was ‘gone’; to which he replied that the skipper had shot himself and then jumped overboard—which I don’t believe, Mr Grenvile, not for a moment, for if I’m not very greatly mistaken I saw the scoundrel wink at the men as he told me the yarn. And he added that, that bein’ the case, every man aboard was his own master, and free to do as he pleased; and if I had anything to say against that, I’d better say it then.
“And I did say it; I told him and all hands that, as to everybody now bein’ his own master, that was all nonsense; for if the skipper was indeed dead—and it would be my business to find out just exactly how he died—the command of the ship devolved upon me, and I intended to take all the necessary steps to get her afloat again and to carry her to her destination. I thought that that would settle it; but it didn’t, by a long chalk, for Tonkin turned to the men and says:—