so like a button. I could not have got up the
well-greased pole if I had attempted it. A practised seaman could,
certainly, and, indeed, one of those worthies who climb for legs of
mutton at a fair, might have succeeded to mount a few inches.

"What!" said I, half aloud, "does the tyrant mean? He knows that this
thing I cannot do: and he also knows that if I attempt it, it is
probable I shall lose my hold of this slippery stick, and be rolled off
into the sea. If he wishes to murder me, he shall do so more directly.
Forgive him--never. I'll brave him first, and revenge myself after."

Again that deadly calm came over me, which makes soft dispositions so
desperate, and to which light-haired persons are so peculiarly subject.
In these temperaments, when the paleness becomes fixed and unnatural,
beware of them in their moods. They concentrate the vindictiveness of a
life in a few moments; and, though the paroxysm is usually short, it is
too often fatal to themselves and their victims. I coolly commenced
descending the rigging, whilst the blackest thoughts crowded in distinct
and blood-stained array upon my brain. I bethought me from whence I
could the most readily pluck a weapon, but the idea was but
instantaneous, and I dismissed it with a mighty effort. At length I
reached the deck, whilst the infuriated captain stood mute with surprise
at my outrageously insubordinate conduct. The men were still at their
quarters, and partook of their commander's astonishment; but, I am
convinced, of no other feeling.

When I found myself on deck I walked up to Captain Reud, and between my
clenched teeth I said to him, slowly and deliberately, "Tyrant, I scorn
you. I come premeditatedly to commit an act of mutiny: I give myself up
as a prisoner: I desire to be tried by a court-martial. I will undergo
anything to escape from you; and I don't think that, with all your
malice, you will be able to hang me. I consider myself under an
arrest." Then turning upon my heel, I prepared to go down the
quarter-deck hatchway.

Captain Reud heard me to the end in silence; he even permitted me to go
down half the ladder unmolested, when, rousing himself from his utter
astonishment, he jumped forward, and spurning me with his foot violently
on my back, dashed me on the main deck. I was considerably bruised,
and, before I got to the midshipmen's berth, two marines seized me and
dragged me again to the quarter-deck. Once more I stood b