ng
and jostling backward down the pier, turning their defenceless backs on
their pursuers and piercing the night with craven outcry.

One coward thrust off the ship's stern, while another still held her by
the bows. The fugitives leaped, screaming, and were hauled on board, or
fell back and perished in the sea. Some were cut down upon the pier by
the pursuers. Many were injured on the ship's deck in the blind haste
and terror of the moment, one man leaping upon another, and a third on
both. At last, and whether by design or accident, the bows of the _Good
Hope_ were liberated; and the ever-ready Lawless, who had maintained his
place at the helm through all the hurly-burly by sheer strength of body
and a liberal use of the cold steel, instantly clapped her on the proper
tack. The ship began to move once more forward on the stormy sea, its
scuppers running blood, its deck heaped with fallen men, sprawling and
struggling in the dark.

Thereupon, Lawless sheathed his dagger, and turning to his next
neighbour, "I have left my mark on them, gossip," said he, "the yelping,
coward hounds."

Now, while they were all leaping and struggling for their lives, the men
had not appeared to observe the rough shoves and cutting stabs with
which Lawless had held his post in the confusion. But perhaps they had
already begun to understand somewhat more clearly, or perhaps another
ear had overheard, the helmsman's speech.

Panic-stricken troops recover slowly, and men who have just disgraced
themselves by cowardice, as if to wipe out the memory of their fault,
will sometimes run straight into the opposite extreme of
insubordination. So it was now; and the same men who had thrown away
their weapons and been hauled, feet-foremost, into the _Good Hope_,
began to cry out upon their leaders, and demand that some one should be
punished.

This growing ill-feeling turned upon Lawless.

In order to get a proper offing, the old outlaw had put the head of the
_Good Hope_ to seaward.

"What!" bawled one of the grumblers, "he carrieth us to seaward!"

"'Tis sooth," cried another. "Nay, we are betrayed for sure."

And they all began to cry out in chorus that they were betrayed, and in
shrill tones and with abominable oaths bade Lawless go about-ship and
bring them speedily ashore. Lawless, grinding his teeth, continued in
silence to steer the true course, guiding the _Good Hope_ among the
formidable billows. To their empty terrors, as to their