“I do, yes, sir, and it may go hard with you if I don’t change my mind,� yelled the captain furiously. “Take him away, you men, and I’ll hold you responsible for him.�
Jack saw red for a minute. He made a leap for the captain but the two sailors caught him.
“Easy there, young feller, easy,� one of them whispered, “we’ve no more use for him than you have, but going on this way ain’t goin’ ter get yer anything. Better come quietly.�
With a sigh that was half a sob Jack submitted to be bound and then half carried, half dragged, to his cabin. He heard the key turned in the lock. He was a prisoner. A wild idea crossed his mind of flashing out by wireless an account of his plight and the captain’s drunkenness.
The next instant it dawned upon him that he was powerless. He was a prisoner, bound hand and foot like a criminal. And where was Raynor? Dead, beyond the possibility of a doubt. He could not have lived more than a few moments in that icy sea. Jack groaned aloud in anguish as he strained and writhed at his bonds. His plight was quite forgotten in his anxiety over Raynor’s fate.
“Hist!�
The sibilant sound of a man’s voice demanding attention broke in on Jack’s sad reverie at this juncture. It came from a circular grating, made for ventilation in the door of the cabin. Jack looked up and saw the face of one of the seamen looking in at him. The hard lines of the mariner’s countenance were illumined by the electric light within the cabin.
“Well, what’s the matter?� demanded Jack, rather petulantly.
The man, it was the one who had been addressed as Andrews by Captain Briggs, began speaking rapidly and cautiously.
“This here Captain Briggs,â€� he began, “we don’t like him no more than you do. I’ve sailed with him before. There’s a plot on foot to——â€�