id of them, and either to go
cruising on our own account, or to sell the ship at a Spanish port to
the westward, and enjoy ourselves on what we get for her."

"Dead men tell no tales," muttered the first speaker.

"Heave them overboard at once, and we shall be done with them."

"I'm not for that sort of thing," said old Growles. "I shouldn't like
to see their white faces as they dropped astern; they'd be haunting us,
depend on that."

The boatswain and the others laughed.

"Who's to take the ship round Cape Horn, if we do away with the
officers?" asked one of the men.

"I know enough navigation for that," said the boatswain, "it won't be a
long job."

"Then I suppose you intend to turn captain. Is that it?" said another
man.

"We don't want no captain aboard."

"If the ship was caught in a squall, you'd soon be calling out for some
one to command you. Call me what you will, there's no man, except
myself, knows how to navigate the ship when the officers are gone."

"I sees what you are after, boatswain," said old Growles. "We should be
just getting rid of one captain, and having another like him in his
place. We must all be free and equal aboard, or it'll never do. I
propose that one is captain one day, and one another; and that you, if
you can, or any one else, shall navigate the ship. Otherwise one man's
as good as another, to my mind, and knows as well as you how to make or
shorten sail."

"Well, I don't see how that can tell one way or the other," said the
boatswain, who evidently didn't like the turn the conversation was
taking.

To me it seemed that the villains were ready for any mischief, but had
not wit enough to carry it out. I lay as quiet as a mouse, scarcely
venturing to breathe, for I knew that they would not scruple to put an
end to me should they discover me, and fancy that I was awake and had
overheard them. I determined, should I be found out, to pretend to be
fast asleep. They talked on for some time longer, till all hands were
summoned on deck to shorten sail. I was considering, as well as I
could, what I had better do. The captain and officers had ill-treated
me, but that was no reason I should allow them to be murdered, if I
could in any way warn them of the danger, while the guiltless passengers
must be saved at all costs. I thought that if I told Captain Longfleet,
he would treat my statement as a cock-and-bull story, and declare I had
been dreaming. Probably I should