dgson to work frying them. Mrs. Cliff took
the coffee in hand with all her ante-millionnaire skill, and Willy
skipped from one thing to another, as happy as most people are whose
ability has suddenly forced them to the front.

"Oh, you ought to see the Synod setting the table!" she cried, bursting
into the galley. "They're getting things all wrong, but it doesn't
matter, and they seem to be enjoying it. Now then, Mr. Litchfield, I
think you have cut all the bread that can possibly be eaten!"

Mr. Burdette had gone on shore with the Captain, and Mr. Portman
considered it his duty to remain on deck, but the volunteer corps of
cooks and stewards did their work with hearty good-will, and the
breakfast would have been the most jolly meal that they had yet enjoyed
together if it had not been for the uncertainty and uneasiness
naturally occasioned by the desertion of the crew.

It was after ten o'clock when Captain Burke and Mr. Burdette returned.
"We're in a bad fix," said the former, approaching Mrs. Cliff, who, with
all the passengers, had been standing together watching them come down
the pier. "There was a steamer cleared from here the day before
yesterday which was short-handed, and seems to have carried off all the
available able seamen in the port. But I believe that is all stuff and
nonsense! the real fact seems to be,--and Mr. Burdette and I've agreed
on that point,--that the report has got out that we're filibusters, and
nobody wants to ship with us! Everything looks like it, you see. Here we
come from New York with a regular lot of passengers, but we've got arms
on board, and we drop the passengers here and let them go home some
other way, and we sail on, saying we're bound for Jamaica--for Cuba is a
good deal nearer, you know. But the worst thing is this, and I'm bound
to tell it so that you can all know how the case stands and take care of
yourselves as you think best. There's reason to believe that if the
government of this place has not already had its eye on us, it will have
its eye on us before very long, and for my part I'd give a good deal of
money to be able to get away before they do; but without a crew we can't
do it!"

Mrs. Cliff and Burke now retired to consult. "Madam," said he, "I'm
bound to ask you as owner, what do you think we ought to do? If you take
my advice, the first thing to be done is to get rid of the ministers.
You can settle with them about their travelling and let them go to
their h