[Illustration: AFTER A QUARTER OF AN HOUR'S SUSPENSE THE "INDEPENDENCIA" GAINED THE OPEN SEA.]
Not until the cruiser had left the ice-field a good twenty miles astern did Juan Cervillo proceed to put into operation the plan that Da Silva had suggested. The men detailed to form the firing-party were ordered on the quarter-deck, but to the captain's surprise all the seamen and many of the engine-room staff came tumbling aft, all armed to the teeth.
"What is the meaning of this, men?" shouted Cervillo, as he faced the mob of olive and black-featured seamen.
The question was almost unnecessary. He realised that it was a case of mutiny.
CHAPTER XVIII
MUTINY AND A RUSE THAT FAILED
"We wish to know why we are freezing to death in this fearful climate, instead of capturing rich prizes, as we were led to believe, and for which we signed on?" said the spokesman, a Greek who spoke four Latin languages fluently.
"And if I refuse to give you the information?" asked Cervillo.
"We'll have the ordering of things in our own hands——"