"We are in for it now, my lads," said old Jack Sanderson.
"We might as well be hung for a bull as a calf," added Baxter.
"If I'm the calf, I don't want you to get into trouble on my account," I added.
"Phil's a good fellow, and we'll stand by him," replied Baxter.
"Ay, ay! stand by him," said half a dozen others.
"I say I don't want you to get yourselves into trouble for my sake; but I would rather be hanged for mutiny than be hanged for being concerned in the slave trade. It's piracy, you know, and there is no law that can compel you to do duty in a vessel engaged in an illegal voyage."
"That's so; Phil's a sea lawyer," said Walker.
"We won't let him have Phil," echoed Baxter, "or any other man. We'll stick together, and go down together, if we can't get out of the scrape."
"But what can we do?" asked one of the more timid of the men.
"We can only refuse to do duty, and take the consequences."