hen
four new faces appeared on deck. They were faces of intelligence, but
one of them had the enlightened look of leadership.

"By Judas, it's our leader, Richard Parker!" declared Ferens.

What Dyck now saw was good evidence of the progress of the agitation.
There were officers of the Ariadne to be seen, but they wisely took no
notice of the breaches of regulation which followed the arrival of the
Delegates. Dyck saw Ferens speak to Richard Parker after the men had
been in conference with Parker and the Delegates, and then turn towards
himself. Richard Parker came to him.

"We are fellow countrymen," he said genially. "I know your history.
We are out to make the navy better--to get the men their rights. I
understand you are with us?"

Dyck bowed. "I will do all possible to get reforms in wages and food put
through, sir."

"That's good," said Parker. "There are some petitions you can draft,
and some letters also to the Admiralty and to the Houses of Lords and
Commons."

"I am at your service," said Dyck.

He saw his chance to secure influence on the Ariadne, and also to do
good to the service. Besides, he felt he might be able to check the
worst excesses of the agitation, if he got power under Parker. He was
free from any wish for mutiny, but he was the friend of an agitation
which might end as successfully as the trouble at Spithead.

CHAPTER XIII. TO THE WEST INDIES

A fortnight later the mutiny at the Nore shook and bewildered the
British Isles. In the public journals and in Parliament it was declared
that this outbreak, like that at Spithead, was due partly to political
strife, but more extensively to agents of revolution from France and
Ireland.

The day after Richard Parker visited the Ariadne the fleet had been put
under the control of the seamen's Delegates, who were men of standing
in the ships, and of personal popularity. Their first act was to declare
that the fleet should not leave port until the men's demands were
satisfied.

The King, Prime Minister, and government had received a shock greater
than that which had come with the announcement of American independence.
The government had armed the forts at Sheerness, had sent troops and
guns to Gravesend and Tilbury, and had declared war upon the rebellious
fleet.

At the head of the Delegates, Richard Parker, with an officer's
knowledge, became a kind of bogus admiral, who, in interview with the
real admirals and the representatives of