f Anegada, th' mutiny broke in full force. The men riz up, an'
overpowered th' officers--th' captain was made a prisoner in his cabin,
an' I was given my choice of joinin' th' mutineers or walkin' th'
plank."

"What's that?" asked Ruth, a bit startled.

"That's when they blindfold a man, and make him walk a plank that is put
out over the bulwarks, or side of the ship," said Alice.

"Why, if he were blindfolded I should think he'd fall off, not knowing
when he came to the end," Ruth remarked, with a little shudder.

"He doesn't know," Alice said. "That's an easy way of sending a man to
his doom."

"That's it, Miss!" chimed in Jack. "You got th' idea!"

"But Alice, how did _you_ know that dreadful thing?" her sister
wonderingly demanded.

"Read it in a book. Go on please, Mr.--er--Jack."

"Of course I didn't want t' walk no plank," resumed the sailor, "so I
temporized. I thought maybe I could beat th' mutineers after all. So I
pretended t' join 'em. Things got pretty bad. Many of 'em was for
puttin' th' captain away--tossin' him overboard, an' there was a fight
about it. Matters got t' such a pass that pistols were fired, an' th'
captain would have been shot, an' killed, only a fellow named Mike
Tullane, a rough character, an' one of the leaders of th' mutiny,
stepped up sudden like an' saved th' captain's life by knockin' aside
th' ruffian's gun.

"Well, of course there was a fight then, but Mike seemed t' come out all
right, bein' a leader, an' havin' th' men pretty well with him. Anyhow,
th' mutineers were in charge of th' ship, an' off Anegada, one of th'
little British Islands of the West Indies, we were put about t' run for
port. Jest what was t' be done no one seemed to know. After the men got
th' ship they didn't know what to do with her.

"Then came th' mystery. One night th' captain an' Mike Tullane
disappeared. They was seen in th' cabin, talkin' together, an' some of
th' hot-headed ones thought Mike was goin' back on his pals. They was
for makin' him walk th' plank.

"But cooler heads made 'em wait. They said they wanted t' give Mike a
chance to explain. But he never got it."

"Do you mean they--" began Alice, somewhat horrified.

"I mean that night he an' th' captain disappeared," Jack said. "They
couldn't be found anywhere. No boat was taken, so they couldn't have
gotten off in one of them craft, an' we wasn't near enough land t' make
swimmin' safe. But they totally disappeared, an' that was