shoot any scoundrel instantly whom you find with arms in his
hands, collect all the weapons and bring them aft.

"Now, Colonel Clifford," he said, turning to the officer in command of
the regiment, "if you go below with the officers, you can unloose the
noncommissioned officers; they will be able to point out to you the
ringleaders in this business. They had better be ironed at once and put
into the hold. You will have no more trouble now, I fancy."

In ten minutes the whole of the arms had been collected and stored
up, the noncommissioned officers had pointed out some twenty of the
ringleaders, and these were safely in irons below, while a strong guard
of armed sailors was placed between decks to see that there was no
renewal of insubordinate conduct. There was, however, no fear of this;
the men were thoroughly cowed and humiliated by the failure of their
plan, and each was occupied only in hoping that he had not been
sufficiently conspicuous to be handed over in the morning to join the
prisoners below.

There was no more sleep that night on board the ship. After breakfast
two courts martial were held, the one by the naval, the other by the
military officers. The latter sentenced two men, who were convicted
on the testimony of the noncommissioned officers as having been the
leaders, to be hung, and the sentence was at once carried out. The
regiment was formed in close order on deck unarmed and witnessed the
execution of their comrades, who were hung up to the extremities of
the main yard. The other prisoners were sentenced to two hundred lashes
apiece--a punishment which was, according to the ideas of the time,
very lenient, such a punishment being frequently administered for
comparatively trifling offenses, and the prisoners considered themselves
fortunate in escaping hanging, for which, indeed, they had prepared
themselves.

Previous to the administration of their punishment the colonel addressed
the men, and told them that all the ringleaders had been found guilty
and sentenced to death, but that the members of the court martial had
agreed with him that, considering the youth and inexperience of the
offenders and the whole circumstances of the case, it would be possible
to remit the death sentence, confident that the prisoners and the whole
of the regiment would recognize the leniency with which they had
been treated, and would return to their duty with a firm and hearty
determination to do all in their power t