to their duty.

Robinson made a bargain that if he saved the Captain from the
mutineers, and recovered the ship, he and Friday were to be taken home
to England in her, free of cost; and to this the Captain and the
others agreed.

Then Robinson gave each of them a musket, with powder and ball, after
which the Captain and the mate and the passenger marched towards the
spot where the mutinous sailors lay asleep. One of the men heard them
advance, and turning round, saw them, and cried out to his companions.
But it was too late, the mate and the passenger fired, and one of the
ringleaders fell dead. A second man also fell, but jumped up
immediately and called to the others to help him. But the Captain
knocked him down with the butt of his musket, and the rest of the
men, seeing Robinson and Friday coming, and knowing they had no chance
against five armed men, begged for mercy. Three others who had been
straying about among the trees came back on hearing the shots, and
were also taken, and thus the whole crew of the boat was captured.

The Captain and Robinson now began to think how they might recover the
ship. There were on board, the Captain said, several men on whom he
thought he could depend, and who had been forced by the others into
the mutiny against their wills. But it would be no easy thing to
retake the ship, for there were still twenty-six men on board, and as
they were guilty of mutiny, all of them, if taken back to England,
would most likely be hanged. Thus they were certain to make a fight
for it.

The first thing that Robinson and the others now did was to take
everything out of the boat--oars, and mast, and sail, and rudder; then
they knocked a hole in her bottom, so that she could not float. While
they were doing this, and drawing her still further up on the beach,
they heard first one gun and then another fired by the ship as signals
to the boat to return.

As she of course did not move, Robinson saw through his glass another
boat with ten men on board, armed with muskets, leave the ship, coming
to bring the others back.

This was serious enough, for now Robinson and his party had to make
plans whereby they might capture also this fresh boat's crew.
Accordingly, they tied the hands of all the men they had first taken,
and sent the worst of them to the cave under the charge of Friday and
of one of the men that the Captain said was to be trusted, with orders
to shoot any who tried to give an alarm or