mastery of him.

"Oh! _that's_ what you say, is it, my fine fellows? Very good; we'll
soon see whether, when I give an order, I am to be obeyed or not," he
hissed through his clenched teeth.

Saying which he stepped hastily to the door of his cabin, which was
situated on deck in the after house, entered, and in a few moments
reappeared with a revolver in each hand.

"_Now_," he exclaimed, planting himself midway between the poop and the
main-mast, "let me see the man who will dare to disobey me. I'll shoot
him like a dog. Boyd, go aloft and loose the main-royal," pointing one
of the revolvers full at him.

"I refuse," exclaimed the seaman. "I demand to be taken before
Captain--"

A flash, a sharp report, and the man staggered backwards and fell to the
deck, while a crimson stain appeared and rapidly broadened on the breast
of his check shirt.

Two of his comrades instantly raised the wounded man and bore him
forward; the remainder rushed with a shout upon the second mate and
disarmed him, though not before he had fired again and sent a bullet
through the left arm of one of his assailants.

The men were still struggling with the second mate when a figure sprang
up through the companion, closely followed by a second, and Captain
Staunton's voice was heard exclaiming--

"Good heavens! Mr Carter, what is the meaning of this? Back men;
back, for your lives. How dare you raise your hands against one of your
officers?"

The men had by this time wrenched the pistols out of Carter's hands, and
they at once fell back and left him as Captain Staunton and Mr Bowles
advanced to his rescue.

The new-comers placed themselves promptly one on each side of the second
mate, and then the two parties stood staring somewhat blankly at each
other for something like a minute.

"Well, Mr Carter," at last exclaimed Captain Staunton, "have you
nothing to say by way of explanation of this extraordinary scene? What
does it mean?"

"Mutiny, sir; that and nothing less," gasped Carter, whose passion
almost deprived him of speech. "I thank you, sir, and you too, Mr
Bowles, for coming to my rescue; but for that I should have been a dead
man by this time."

"Oh, no, you wouldn't, Mr Carter," exclaimed one of the men. "We ain't
murderers; and we shouldn't ha' touched you if you hadn't touched us
first."

"That will do," exclaimed Captain Staunton. "If any of you have
anything to say you shall have an opportunity of saying i