added, somewhat more gently: "No harm is intended you, Captain
Blyth, but we mean to have the ship. We _will_ have her; and were you
to raise an alarm it would only cause bloodshed, which we are most
anxious to avoid. Where's Nicholls? Here, Nicholls, this man is your
prisoner; get the bilboes and clap them on him. And--mind--I shall hold
you responsible for his safekeeping!"

"But--but--Williams," stammered poor Captain Blyth, who now identified
the speaker, "what is the meaning of all this? I--I--don't understand
it!"

"No time to explain now," was the answer. "Tell you all about it later
on if you care to hear. Come, lads, away aft with us, and let us secure
our other prisoner!"

In obedience to this command, the mob of mutineers who had clustered
about the door of the forward deck-house--into which the unfortunate
skipper had been thrust--melted away, and Captain Blyth found himself
left alone with his jailer and young Manners, the latter being bound
hand and foot, and lying gagged in one of the bunks which had been
vacated when the steerage passengers were drafted into the forecastle.

In the midst of his bewilderment and dismay the skipper still retained
enough presence of mind to note, by the light of the single lantern
which illuminated the place, that his young subordinate was suffering
severe discomfort from the presence of the gag--a large belaying-pin--in
his mouth; and, turning to the man Nicholls, he pointed out that, unless
the crew wished to add the crime of murder to that of mutiny, it would
be advisable to remove the gag at once.

"Well, sir," said the man, civilly enough--he was one of the former
steerage passengers--"I don't know what to do about that. I'd be
willing enough to take the thing out of the young gentleman's mouth, but
my orders are strict; and if anything was to happen through my meddling
you may depend upon it I should be made to suffer for it."

"If that is what you are afraid of, my good fellow," said the skipper,
"you may remove the gag at once. Nothing _shall_ happen, I promise you.
The crew have possession of the ship, safe enough; and, bound hand and
foot as we two are, we can do nothing to recover her. So out with it at
once, my man, unless you wish to see the poor lad suffocate before your
eyes."

This was enough; the gag was at once removed, the skipper at the same
time cautioning Manners against any ill-timed attempt to raise an alarm,
and then Nicholls was