and I'm
for havin' our rights."

"You will do neither the one nor the other, with my consent, Price, I
assure you," said I. "And unless my conditions are absolutely complied
with I shall decline to help you in any way."

"Oh, you will, eh?" sneered Price. "You'd better not, though, because I
dessay we could soon find a way to bring ye round to our way of
thinkin'. We could stop your grub, for instance, and starve ye until
you was willin' to do what was wanted. And if that didn't do, why
there's the--"

"Stop!" I exclaimed fiercely, "I have had enough, and more than enough,
of threats, my man, and will listen to them no further. Now, understand
me, all of you. I have stated the conditions upon which I will meet
your wishes, and I will not abate one jot of them. Agree to them or
not, as you please. You have taken the ship from me, and now you may do
as you will with her; but, make no mistake, I will only help you of my
own free will; I would rather kill the young lady and myself with my own
hand than submit to compulsion from a crowd of mutineers. Take your own
time to decide; _I_ am in no hurry."

"Why, he defies us!" exclaimed Price, turning to his companions. "What
d'ye say, boys, shall we give him a lesson? Shall us show him that
we're his masters?"

"No, mate, we shan't," interposed the fellow who had spoken before; "and
if you don't stop your gab about `lessons' and `masters' I'll see if I
cawn't stop it for you. What we want, mates, is to get to that island
that O'Gorman has told us so much about; and here is a gent who can take
us to it. What do we want more? Do we want to grub in the cabin?
Ain't the fo'k'sle good enough for us, who've lived in fo'k'sles all our
lives? Very well, then, let's agree to the gent's terms, and have done
with it. What d'ye s'y?"

It soon appeared that the entire party were willing--Price, however,
consenting under protest;--so I retired to the cabin and drew up the
terms in writing, together with an acknowledgment on the part of the
crew that they had taken the ship from me by force, and that I was
acting as navigator under compulsion; and this the entire party more or
less reluctantly signed--or affixed their mark to--Miss Onslow acting as
witness to the signatures of the men. This done, with bitter chagrin
and profound misgiving as to the issue of the adventure, I gave the
order to wear ship, and we bore up on a course that pointed the brig's
jib-boom straig