“ ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘I, for one, am content to obey your orders till the v’yage is up. What say you, my lads, is Captain Catherton fit to be trusted with the ship, after what has happened?’
“ ‘No, no!’ was the universal answer, mingled with execrations and oaths of vengeance.
“ ‘Who, then, shall take charge?’ asked the second mate.
“ ‘Mister Miller,’ they answered, with one voice, ‘for he only can take the Tartar off this coast.’
“ ‘Well, my lads,’ said I, wonderfully moved, I confess, seeing that I had something to live for yet, although, a moment before, I had thought that my hold on life was slackened for ever, ‘if you will have it so, I’ll do my best. I tell you fairly that the captain confessed to me last night, in this cabin, that he intended to sell ship and cargo, on the passage home, in return for some private wrong which, he said, one of the owners had done him—though,’ said I, solemnly, ‘as surely as God’s eye beheld this accursed deed, yon pale clay was as innocent as the angels of heaven of aught like crime toward him.’
“ ‘We know it, captain—we knew it all along!’ they answered, even those whom I had considered the most hardened, shedding tears, while curses and vows of vengeance were freely vented around.
“ ‘She was too good for the bloody-minded villain,’ said the carpenter; ‘and, so help me, if there is nobody else—’
“It was time to stop this, as we had quite enough of blood for that night, so I checked old Charley in his oath, and called back the Indian boat-steerer, who, at first, had seemed disposed to side with the captain, but who was now stealing up the companion-way, in an empty-handed, errandless way, though I saw the thing in his eye, and the gleam of a knife in the sleeve of his shirt.
“ ‘My lads,’ said I, ‘we will leave him to the law. He shall not escape, I promise you. Mr. Parker, you will have Captain Catherton put in double-irons, and placed in the steerage for the present.’
“ ‘Ay, ay, sir,’ he answered, and accordingly the villain was well secured, with one of the trustiest men in the ship standing sentry over him.