ome'at of that sort to you, now wouldn't he? And you'd have
listened to him, and then you wouldn't have been in this here precious
scrape as you're in now, would you?"

"You're right, Rogers; I should not," eagerly exclaimed Thomson, his
eyes lighting up with a gleam of fresh hope, as he thought he detected
in the boatswain's speech some signs of relenting. "If Mr Nicholls had
only put the matter to me as you have just now put it, I should never
have given a single man of you the slightest reason for complaint
against me. But he never did anything of the kind; on the contrary,
both he and Captain Arnold encouraged me to believe you an idle,
worthless lot of scamps, and to treat you as such. And that is the
plain, simple truth, I swear it."

"Wery good," commented Rogers. "Then, you see, Thomson, you and us
thinks alike, namely, that Nicholls in a kind of a sort of a way led you
into this here miserable scrape. That bein' the case, we thinks it'll
be only fair if _you_ gives him the twenty-five lashes--_well laid on_--
that the court have condemned him to receive."

Thomson looked eagerly into the face of the boatswain, hoping that in
this proposal he saw a commutation of his death-sentence. Rogers
returned the gaze with a look of grim satisfaction, which the second
mate mistook for a half-drunken leer of benevolence; and, anxious above
all things to propitiate this man, who undoubtedly held the power of
life and death in his hands, he excitedly exclaimed--

"I'll do it! Give me the cat, and you shall have _no_ cause to complain
of the way in which I will execute your sentence."

"All right; that's a bargain," agreed Rogers. Then, turning to the rest
of the mutineers, he ordered them to fetch all hands on deck to witness
punishment, "All hands exceptin' the ladies, I mean; they'd be shocked
at the sight, pretty dears, and we must take care as they don't see nor
hear nothin' as'd shock 'em, sweet, delicate creeturs," he added with a
contemptuous laugh, which was echoed by his comrades as they staggered
forward to drag the male passengers on deck.

In a few minutes these were all mustered, Walford contriving, seemingly
without attracting attention, to mingle with them and take up an
unobtrusive position, from which he intended, if possible, to quietly
effect a retreat at the first convenient opportunity.

When all was at length ready, the scene which presented itself was a
sufficiently curious one.

The c