this weather, and wi' this purty little breeze,
you ought to be able to make the South American coast in ten days,
easy."

"Ten days!" exploded the skipper. "Yes, no doubt--if this wind holds
and the fine weather lasts. But suppose that it doesn't, what then?"
He pulled himself up short, panting and breathless with anger, got a
pull upon himself, recovered his self-control, and then said, in a
perfectly quiet and steady voice:

"Look here, Lloyd, you are a seaman of experience, and ought to
understand--and do understand, I have no doubt--that to send a heavily
loaded open boat away upon a ten days' voyage with only three weeks'
provisions and water is--well--practically downright murder. I must see
your--er--Mr Bainbridge about this, I really must; and you must arrange
that I have an opportunity to do so. I cannot and will not undertake
the responsibility of such a voyage as that which is proposed, nor, I am
sure, will Mr Bligh or Mr Johnson. I shall simply refuse to go in the
boat."

"And I too," added the chief mate.

"Ditto," tersely added Johnson.

"You'll refuse to go, eh?" snarled Lloyd. "And suppose we makes yer;
suppose--"

"There is no use in supposing anything," interrupted the skipper. "You
profess to be anxious to avoid anything in the nature of force or
bloodshed. Very well; I tell you that there will be both if you
scoundrels persist in turning us all adrift under such circumstances as
you have named. No, stand back; don't attempt violence with me, my fine
fellow. I am free now, and if you dare to lay your filthy hands upon me
I will kill you with this," and he shook his clenched fist savagely in
Lloyd's face. "Now," he continued authoritatively, "go aft and tell
Bainbridge that I want to see him--that I must and will speak to him
before I leave this ship."

To my great surprise the man obediently turned away, and, with a
low-spoken word or two to the armed men who remained on guard outside
the door, swung round the end of the house and walked aft, as we could
tell by the sound of his receding footsteps.

He was absent about a quarter of an hour, during which Captain Roberts
quietly cast off the chief mate's lashings, then the pair of them
released Mr Johnson and the boatswain, who in turn released the
sailmaker and myself, all being done under the eyes of the armed guard
before the door, who looked stolidly on without protest by word or deed.
We had scarcely done this when we became