are clearing out the longboat
preparatory to getting her over the side, and mean to turn us adrift in
her. And not us only, but also the unfortunate passengers; for if they
had not intended to send them as well as ourselves away, they would have
kept the longboat and given us one of the quarter boats, which would
have been amply big enough to have accommodated us seven--or six, if
they mean to keep Chips with them."

"He won't stay, sir, you may take my word for that," observed the
boatswain. "Parsons is a straight chap--as straight as they make 'em;
and you'll find that he's not the sort of man to have no truck wi'
mutineers--not he!"

"But they may compel him to stay," objected the skipper. "He would be a
very useful sort of man for them to have with them, and they may not
give him the choice of going or staying."

"Yes, that's very true," agreed Murdock. "But if they asks him to stay
he'll say `No', and likewise give 'em to understand that if they keep
him by force he won't do no work for 'em. And they knows Chips, and
understands that if he says a thing like that he'll stick to it, if it's
only to spite 'em. No, I don't believe as they'll want to keep any man
against his will, because that always means trouble, sooner or later,
and Muster Bainbridge is far too 'cute to run the risk of anything of
that sort. Besides, there's Joe Caton--he says as he sarved his time in
a shipbuilder's yard, and is as good a ship's carpenter as you'll find
goin'; he's stoppin' with 'em of his own accord, I reckon, and
Bainbridge will be satisfied with him."

"Well, perhaps it may be so; we shall soon know," agreed the skipper.
"But," he continued, with a sigh of anxiety, "if they mean to turn the
passengers as well as ourselves adrift--and I feel assured that they
do--I wish Bainbridge would let me advise him in the matter of fixing up
the longboat for the reception of the women and children. They will
need many little comforts that an inexperienced lad, such as he is, will
never think of; and it will be bad enough for the poor souls, even if
everything that is possible is done for their welfare. And the longboat
alone will not be big enough to take us all with any degree of safety,
to say nothing of comfort."

"We must watch for an opportunity, and give him our views upon the
matter," said the chief mate. "I wonder whether--"

At that moment the sliding door of the house in which we were confined
was thrust back, and