was fury in his face. God's truth, my hair stood up,
and my toes crawled in their boots! Oh, I knew I had let myself in for
it with that warning shout.

But if Newman laughed, he did not venture to move. He, too, saw
through the skipper's plan, and by his action promptly defeated it. He
laughed, but he also elevated his hands above his head to show his
unarmed condition and his pacific intent. Then, ignoring the mate, he
spoke to Captain Swope.

"Am I to consider myself under arrest, Captain?"

Swope turned his face to the speaker, and glad I was to be free of his
gaze. He was a furious man that moment; I could see him biting his
lips, and clenching and unclenching his hands from excess of anger.
Yet he answered Newman in a soft, even voice, and in the same
half-bantering vein the big fellow had used. He was a strong man, was
Swope; he could control his temper when he thought it necessary.

"Yes, my man, you may consider yourself under arrest!" he said.

"Then you will notice I offer no resistance," added Newman. "I am
unarmed, and eager to obey all legal commands of my captain. Shall I
lower my arms, and permit this gentleman to fasten the irons upon my
wrists?"

"No less eager to break into limbo, than to break out of it--_eh_?"
commented the captain. "Yes, I grant you permission to be
handcuffed--but not that way!--turn around, and place your hands
together behind your back."

Newman promptly complied with the directions, and the carpenter stepped
forward and slipped on the cuffs.

"Lock those irons tightly, Connolly," Swope directed the tradesman.
"We have to deal with a desperate man, a tricky man, a damned
jail-bird, Connolly. Squeeze those irons down upon his wrists. It
doesn't matter if they pinch him."

From where I stood I could not see, but I could imagine the steel rings
biting cruelly into my friend's flesh. I felt a rage against the
captain which overcame the sick fear of what he might do to me. But my
rage was impotent; it could not help Newman.

Mister Lynch tried to help him; and by his action indicated plainly
what was his position in the matter of the arrest. He crossed the
deck, and examined the prisoner's wrists.

"These irons are too tight, and will torture the man," he said to the
captain. "In my judgment, sir, it is not necessary to secure him in
this fashion."

"In my judgment it is," was Swope's bland response. Then he added,
"And now, Mister Fitzgibbon, and yo