“I have been thinking that I have, sir, and, if I mistake not, she is the very craft which so nearly captured us on our passage out.”
“I am afraid so,” said Owen. “The more reason we should try to beat her off; and, please Heaven, we will do so.”
“I will stand by you, sir; and so, I hope, will most of the men,” answered the mate; “but I don’t like the looks of some of the new hands, and least of all of that man Routh.”
As he spoke, he caught sight of Routh ascending to the mast-head, from which he was seen to wave a flag, supposing, apparently, that he was not perceived from the deck.
“We must seize that fellow,” cried Owen. “He did not make that signal without a cause.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” answered the mate. “I will soon learn his object;” and, calling Dan Connor and Pompey, he went forward to secure Routh as he descended on deck.
Just then Owen observed a smaller flag hoisted at the mast-head of the stranger; then Routh, instead of at once coming on deck, ran out to the end of the fore-yardarm, from whence he dropped something into the water, apparently the very flag he had just waved. He then deliberately returned to the foretop, and after stopping there for some seconds, and looking at the stranger, he slowly descended the fore-rigging. As he did so, he caught sight of the mate, with Dan and Pompey, waiting for him, when, suspecting their object, he sprang up again, and shouted to several men who were standing forward. They were those of whom the mate had just before spoken as likely to become traitors. With threatening gestures, they at once advanced towards the mate.
“If you interfere with Routh it will prove the worse for you,” exclaimed John Green, who acted as their spokesman.
The mate’s first impulse was to seize the fellow, but his courage failed him. “You will hear what the captain has to say to this,” he answered, and began to retreat, Dan and Pompey unwillingly following him.
Routh, on this, took the opportunity of slipping down on deck and joining his companions.