“You don’t mean to say,” said the boatswain, “that Leftenant Bowsprit and them others there have turned agin us?”
“We are all,” answered Bowsprit, “pledged to stand by Mr Coe for life or death.”
“As to them other fellows there,” said the boatswain, “I never had much faith in them; but I didn’t think, leftenant, that you would ever desert us.”
“I am determined,” replied Bowsprit, “to live hereafter, and to die, an honest man.”
“And to get yourself hanged,” sneered the sailor.
“I had rather things should come to that,” said Bowsprit, “than ever to be a pirate again.”
“Come,” said Coe; “you must decide quickly. Do you surrender?”
“Never,” answered the boatswain. “We can hold out until old bully Afton comes from the cabin—confound him, he’s always after the gals and the rhino—we shall then be equal to you. Never say ‘die’—heh, boys?”
The pirates answered him by cheers, mingled with oaths, swearing that they would rather die where they stood like men, than to be hanged like dogs.
“You need not expect help from Afton or his men,” said the resolute Coe, addressing the pirates; “I have them all bound in the cabin.”