ered the
shrimp-catchers to lend a hand with the buckets. They laughed defiantly,
and those inside the cabin, the water up to their ankles, shouted back
and forth with those on top.

"You'd better get out your gun and make them bail," I said to George.

But he shook his head and showed all too plainly that he was afraid.
The Chinese could see the funk he was in as well as I could, and their
insolence became insufferable. Those in the cabin broke into the food
lockers, and those above scrambled down and joined them in a feast on
our crackers and canned goods.

"What do we care?" George said weakly.

I was fuming with helpless anger. "If they get out of hand, it will be
too late to care. The best thing you can do is to get them in check
right now."

The water was rising higher and higher, and the gusts, forerunners of a
steady breeze, were growing stiffer and stiffer. And between the gusts,
the prisoners, having gotten away with a week's grub, took to crowding
first to one side and then to the other till the _Reindeer_ rocked like
a cockle-shell. Yellow Handkerchief approached me, and, pointing out
his village on the Point Pedro beach, gave me to understand that if I
turned the _Reindeer_ in that direction and put them ashore, they, in
turn, would go to bailing. By now the water in the cabin was up to the
bunks, and the bed-clothes were sopping. It was a foot deep on the
cockpit floor. Nevertheless I refused, and I could see by George's face
that he was disappointed.

"If you don't show some nerve, they'll rush us and throw us overboard,"
I said to him. "Better give me your revolver, if you want to be safe."

"The safest thing to do," he chattered cravenly, "is to put them
ashore. I, for one, don't want to be drowned for the sake of a handful
of dirty Chinamen."

"And I, for another, don't care to give in to a handful of dirty
Chinamen to escape drowning," I answered hotly.

"You'll sink the _Reindeer_ under us all at this rate," he whined. "And
what good that'll do I can't see."

"Every man to his taste," I retorted.

He made no reply, but I could see he was trembling pitifully. Between
the threatening Chinese and the rising water he was beside himself with
fright; and, more than the Chinese and the water, I feared him and what
his fright might impel him to do. I could see him casting longing
glances at the small skiff towing astern, so in the next calm I hauled
the skiff alongside. As I did so his eyes bri