All very true, so far as it goes," answered Williams, "but would _you_
like to be a seaman before the mast?"

"No," said Mr Gaunt, "I frankly admit I should not; otherwise, I
suppose I should have been a seaman, and not a civil engineer. But the
life was of your own choosing, I presume?"

"Yes, it was, and I don't complain of it," said Williams. "The thing I
complain of is, that, seeing what a life of hardship and peril ours is,
we do not get paid a half nor a quarter enough. What would be the use
of ships without sailors to man them? We are just as necessary to a
ship as her captain; yet look at the difference in his pay and ours! I
say it is not fair; it is rank injustice; sailors have just been
_robbed_ all these years, and the long and the short of it is that the
crew of this ship means to get back part of what has been stolen from
them by the dishonesty of shipowners."

"But, my good fellow," exclaimed the engineer, "you are taking an
altogether wrong view of the question. Admitting that you are as
necessary to the ship as her captain, you entirely overlook the
important fact that _one_ captain is sufficient for a ship, no matter
how large she may be, whilst _one_ seaman alone is of very trifling
value; hence the difference in the scale of pay."

It was clear enough from the expression of the mutineer's face that this
view of the question had never before been presented to him; he was
completely "taken aback," and for a minute or two could find absolutely
nothing to say.

"Well!" he exclaimed at last, "it is clear enough that it is no use for
an ignorant man like me to try to argue with an educated gentleman like
you; you are bound to go to wind'ard of me the very first tack, and I
was a fool for attempting it. But there are other matters which, in my
opinion, fully justify the step we have taken."

"The fellow may _call_ himself an ignorant man, but his language is that
of a person who has enjoyed at least some of the benefits of education,"
thought Gaunt. But he merely said:

"Indeed! May I ask what they are?"

"Certainly. The question is just this. Why should I, and thousands
like me, have to work and slave for a bare living, whilst there are
others who never do a stroke of work in their whole lives and yet have
houses, and land, and money, horses and carriages--in fact, all that
heart can wish for? Is this fair, or right, or just?"

"Assuredly it is," was the reply, "and so, I think, you w