"Oh, Leslie," cried Rose, "take care, take care!"
"Oh, papa—dear papa, you, at least, must not go," added Ethel, who had now put on her morning wrapper, or dressing-gown, and appeared at the door of her little cabin.
"Pooh, pooh, Miss Basset, there is not the slightest cause for fear, my dear girl," said the captain, laughing, as Joe lit a ship-lantern.
"But the poor man's sufferings may have made him vicious—wild."
"I'll take care of your papa, ladies; and bite the fellow's head off, mayhap, if he bites him. Come, Captain Hawkshaw, and show us which of the four is the culprit, and then, if need be, we shall get the bilboes ready." *
* Iron shackles used on board ship to secure the feet of prisoners.
"No, no, I cannot," replied Hawkshaw, with a sullen and hang-dog expression in his now white and livid face.
"What—you won't go?"
"No."
The captain looked at him with a smile of contempt.