gasping and choking.

"Leggo my coat, cap'n. Leggo my coat!" said the form, and I knew it was
Harris wounded to death. In a minute he was still, and then the scuttle
above rattled peremptorily.

"Mr. Harris! Be ye hurt, Mr. Harris? Oh, Mr. Harris!"

"We got him all right," whispered Buckrow. "That settles Mr. Matey, well
and good. Hey, Thirkle?"

"Good, clean job," replied Thirkle. "Good, clean job, Bucky, and smart as
could be the way you drew him down. See what you can do with the skipper
now."

"Anything wrong, Mr. Harris?" called the captain from the scuttle. "Good
Lord! ain't I to have no officers? What's to become of my ship with such
a crew aboard me? Sally Ann! Sally Ann!"

"Come on down, cap'n," said a voice startlingly like Harris's. It was
Meeker, or Thirkle, as his men called him, imitating the high-pitched
nasal twang of the dead mate.

"That you, Harris?" cried Riggs hopefully. "What's the matter, Mr.
Harris?"

"I hurt myself, cap'n. Come on down," pleaded Thirkle in a constrained
voice like a man in pain. "I done for Buckrow, but I hurt my ribs. Why
don't ye come down? I can't navigate this way--I'm hurt."

"Who was my mate in the _Jennie Lee_?" demanded Riggs. "Tell me that, Mr.
Harris, and I'll come down, and not before."

"We'll have to go up and get him," whispered Thirkle. "He's too wise an
old crab to be caught that way. I'll take the lead, Bucky, and Long Jim
last, and we've got the ship. We can let the fire-room chinks and the
nigger go until morning. We'll take the bridge and keep the old tub going
until day and then pick out a good place to drop her when we've got what
we want. Petrak's got the wheel now, and we can do for the chinks, come
day. Blessed if I know what has become of Trenholm, but we'll find him in
time and attend to him proper. Remember: make for the bridge once we've
got the skipper. Quick now!"

The three of them sneaked up the companionway.

CHAPTER X

THE DEVIL'S ADMIRAL

For several minutes I listened breathlessly, waiting for some sound which
would indicate that Captain Riggs had been killed or captured by the
three who had gone up the companionway after him. But when I heard no
cry, or shot, or sounds of a struggle, I began to formulate plans for
getting back to my room or finding the captain and begging him to let me
help him fight against Thirkle and his men.

Lying huddled under the bunk in the bilge-water, which swung from side to
side as the