them, I begged them to keep quiet and listen to
me.

"The captain and mates are all drunk," I said, "and now is your chance
to leave the ship. Funafuti is only a league away. Get your clothes
together as quickly as possible, then lower away the port quarter-boat.
I, too, am leaving this ship, and I want you to put me on board the
_Hazeldine_. Then you can go on shore. Now, put up your knives and don't
hurt those three men, beasts as they are."

As I was speaking, Max the bos'un came for'ard and listened. (I thought
he was asleep.) He did not interfere, merely giving me an expressive
look. Then he said to me:--

"Ask them to lock me up in the deck-house".

Very quietly this was done, and then, whilst I got together my personal
belongings in the cabin, the boat was lowered. The Yankee mate was sound
asleep in his bunk, but one of the Nuie men took the key of his door and
locked it from the outside. Presently I heard a sound of breaking wood,
and going on deck, found that the Gilbert Islanders had stove-in the
starboard quarter-boat and the long-boat (the latter was on deck).
Then I saw that the second mate was lashed (bound hand and foot) to
the pump-rail, and the captain was lashed to one of the fife-rail
stanchions. His face was streaming with blood, and I thought he was
dead, but found that he had only been struck with a belaying pin, which
had broken his nose.

"He drew a lot of blood from us," said one of the natives to me, "and so
I have drawn some from him."

I hurried to the deck-house and told the bos'un what had occurred. He
was a level-headed young man, and taking up a carpenter's broad axe,
smashed the door of the deck-house. Then he looked at me and smiled.

"You see, I'm gaining my liberty--captain and officers tied up, and no
one to look after the ship."

I understood perfectly, and shaking hands with him and wishing him
a better ship, I went over the side into the boat, and left the brig
floating quietly on the placid surface of the ocean.

The eight native sailors made no noise, although they were all wildly
excited and jubilant, but as we shoved off, they called out "Good-bye,
bos'un".

An hour afterwards I was on board the _Hazeldine_ and telling my story
to her skipper, who was an old friend. Then I bade good-bye to the
natives, who started off for Funafuti with many expressions of goodwill
to their fellow-mutineer.

At daylight a breeze came away from the eastward, and at breakfast time