"With the crew. Wasn't it technically and actually mutiny?"
Medbury laughed.
"It was a beautiful fight," he said; then remembering their talk early on the voyage, he added: "Call it a case of brutality, if you like; but it seemed necessary."
"But the men's part," persisted Drew—"will they not be punished?"
"Man alive!" said Medbury, "they had been standing many hours at those pumps and working as they'd never worked before—with no hope. That's punishment enough, isn't it? They're tired now, and very humble, and, I guess, if the truth could be told, pretty thankful to me. It wasn't mutiny; it was a funk. They simply gave up, that's all. But if the old man had done it, you wouldn't be looking into Christiansted roadstead this morning. There's a man for you!" His voice changed as he added: "And if it hadn't been for you, God knows where I'd be now. Over the rail somewhere, with the steward's pretty little trinket in my back. I haven't said much; but I guess you know I'm not going to forget it."
"Do the ladies know?" asked Drew. He had not mentioned his own slight scratch.
"They know he was swept overboard," the mate replied. "I guess they needn't know any more at present." Then he went forward.
Rolling heavily, low above the sea, white with salt, but with the speed of the gale in her rain-blackened sails, the brig flashed past the shipping, crowded with wondering sailors, and drove straight for the rocky beach where the cocoanut-palms came down to the shore, and on hot mornings the negro washer-women lay their wet clothes upon the smooth rocks, and the roadstead resounds with the echoing beat of their wooden paddles. Then all at once Captain March's voice rang out, and with sails shaking in the wind the Henrietta C. March shot toward a narrow ribbon of sand on the shore, struck, rolled slowly, and with a long, grating sigh came safely to land.
An hour later, as Medbury walked aft, he mounted the steps to the poop-deck before he saw the flutter of Hetty's dress by the main-rigging. She was looking steadily out to sea.
He stopped by her side.