"Now, what does the scoundrel mean by this shift of helm, think you? We
are only about four or five degrees to the southward of Rio at this
moment. Can the man be such a fool as to think of running in until he
sights the coast and then turning us adrift to get ashore as best we
can? Because, if he does, we'll have a British man-o'-war after him in
no time."

"I don't believe the boy is quite such an ass as that; indeed, I regard
him as being very far from an ass--except in this one particular
instance of organising this mutiny," answered Bligh. "I haven't the
slightest notion of what he intends to be after, but I think we may be
quite certain that Bainbridge won't give us much of a chance to report
him until he has had time to get well out of the neighbourhood. What
say you, Johnson? He was in your watch, and you should know him a good
deal better than I do."

"If you are speaking of Bainbridge," answered the second mate, "I fully
agree with you that he is very far from being a fool--quite the other
way about, indeed; and from what I know of the young villain I should
say that he may be depended upon to give us the smallest possible chance
of reporting him quickly. My opinion is this. So far, and up to the
moment of shifting her helm, the _Zenobia_ has been following the usual
ship track to the south'ard and round the Cape; hence we have been
liable to fall in at any moment with other ships, which would not
exactly suit Bainbridge's book. Therefore he has shifted his helm and
is now running off the track far enough to avoid meeting with other
ships. In my opinion he will continue so to run until he considers
himself quite out of danger; but what he will do afterward, and how he
will dispose of us, I'll leave it to a better guesser than myself to
imagine. The only thing that I feel at all certain about is that he
will not murder us; if he had intended to do that he would not have
taken such elaborate pains to get us alive and uninjured into his
power."

"Quite so; I fully agree with you there," returned the skipper. "The
thing that I can't fathom is the young scoundrel's motive for taking the
ship, and what he proposes to do with her now that he has her. By the
way, Mr Temple, it was you, I think, who first named Bainbridge as the
ringleader of this rascally job; what led you to fix it upon him so
pat?"

"Well, sir," said I, "the fact is that after they brought us in here and
left us, bound hand and f