rgan. Many a galleon has been looted of ingots and bullion by the
old seadogs there. If I weren't so conscientious, by Jupiter, I'd turn
pirate myself."

"Haven't a doubt of it," Blythe assented curtly. "We'll try to see that
your opportunities don't match your inclinations. Unless I guess wrong
you wouldn't hesitate to cut a throat to escape if your hands were
free."

"Not at all."

"Just so. Merely as a formality we'll take the precaution of making sure
you haven't any weapons that might go off and injure you--or anybody
else. Jack, may I trouble you to look in my cabin for a pair of
handcuffs--middle right hand drawer of my dressing table?"

We made our prisoner secure and spelled each other watching him. The
first three hours fell to me. Except the Arizonian I think all of us
felt a weight lifted from our hearts. The chief villain was in our hands
and the mutiny nipped in the bud.

But Bothwell had managed to inject a fly into the ointment of my
content.

"We've drawn your sting now," Blythe had told him before he left.

"Have you? Bet you a pony I'll be free inside of twenty-four hours," the
Russian had coolly answered.

CHAPTER XIII

MUTINY

It was in the afternoon of the day after our encounter with Bothwell--to
be more accurate, just after four bells. Miss Wallace and I were sitting
under the deck awning, she working in a desultory fashion upon a piece
of embroidery while I watched her lazily.

The languorous day was of the loveliest. It invited to idleness, made
repudiation of work a virtue. My stint was over for a few hours at least
and I enjoyed the luxury of pitying poor Mott, who was shut up in a
stuffy cabin with our prisoner.

Yeager, too, was off duty. We could hear him pounding away at the piano
in the saloon. Ragtime floated to us, and presently a snatch from "The
Sultan of Sulu."

Since I first met you,
Since I first met you,
The open sky above me seems a deeper blue,
Golden, rippling sunshine warms me through and through,
Each flower has a new perfume since I first met you.

"T. Yeager is a born optimist," I commented idly. "Life is one long,
glorious lark to him. I believe he would be happy if he knew raw, red
mutiny were going to break out in twenty minutes."

"He's very likable. I never knew a man who has had so many experiences.
There's something right boyish about him."

"Even if he could give me about a dozen years."

"Years don't count with