dead or prisoners; you are not asked or
expected to join us--we do not want you and should not care to have you
even if you were willing--you are therefore relieved from duty; and all
that is asked of you is that you shall interfere in no way, either by
word or deed, with the working of the ship or with our plans. If you
are agreeable to abide by this proposal, well and good; you will be
welcome to come and go as you like until we find it convenient to land
you; you will be allowed to occupy your former quarters, and your
rations will be regularly served out to you. But if on the other hand
you make the slightest attempt to communicate with the prisoners, or
endeavour in any way to seduce any of the men from their loyalty to the
rest, I will hang you both that same hour, one from each yard-arm. That
is understood and agreed to, is it not, men?" he continued, raising his
voice and appealing to the crowd of mutineers who had gathered round us.

"Ay, ay, that's agreed; that's fair enough," was the unanimous reply.

With that, Farmer waved his hand to us by way of dismissal; and
considerably thrown off our balance by the address to which we had just
listened, and by the terrible turn affairs had taken generally, we slunk
off to the poop, so as to be as far away as possible from the murderous
gang and from the ghastly puddles of coagulated blood about the quarter-
deck, which still bore witness to heaven against them.

At this moment a man on the forecastle electrified all hands by
shouting:

"Sail ho!"

I saw Farmer start from his seat on the gun as if shot, his flushed
features turned ashen pale, and for a moment his palsied lips refused to
give utterance to a sound.

"Sail ho!" repeated the man in a louder hail, thinking, I suppose, that
his first intimation had passed unnoticed. This second hail fairly
startled the men, and in a moment everything was bustle and confusion
and panic. It aroused Farmer too; he pulled himself together
sufficiently to respond to the hail with the usual question, "Where
away?" and, on receiving the reply, "Two points on the larboard bow,"
walked forward to personally inspect the stranger. We, of course,
likewise directed our glances in the specified direction; and there she
was, sure enough, a large ship, on the starboard tack, with every stitch
of canvas set that would draw, and steering a course which would take
her across our bows at a distance of about a mile.

"Bring me the