"If he liked you, he'd favour you; if he didn't,
he'd go dead against you. I wouldn't trust myself in _his_ hands
whether innocent or guilty. Depend upon it, Mr Young, Fletcher
Christian would have been an honour to the service if he had not been
driven all but mad by Bligh. I don't justify Mr Christian's act--it
cannot be defended,--but I have great sympathy with him. The only man
who deserves to be hanged for the mutiny of the _Bounty_, in my opinion,
is Mr Bligh himself; but men seldom get their due in this world, either
one way or another."

"That's a powerfully radical sentiment," said Young, laughing; "it's to
be hoped that men will at all events get their due in the next world,
and it is well for you that Pitcairn is a free republic. But come, we
must go to work if we would have a kettle of fresh eggs. I see a ledge
which seems accessible, and where there must be plenty of eggs, to judge
from the row the gulls are making round it. I'll try. See, now, that
you don't get yourself into a fix that you can't get out of. You know
that the heads of you landsmen are not so steady as those of seamen."

"I know that the heads of landsmen are not stuffed with such conceit as
the heads of you sailors," retorted Brown, as he went off to gather
eggs.

"Now, Sally, do you stop here and take care of Charlie," said Young,
leading the little girl to a soft grassy mound, as far back from the
edge of the cliff as possible. "Mind that you don't leave this spot
till I return. I know I can trust you, and as for Charlie--"

"Oh, he never moves a'most, 'xcept w'en I lifts 'im. He's _so_ good!"
interrupted Sally.

"Well, just keep a sharp eye on him, and we'll soon be back with lots of
eggs."

While Edward Young was thus cautioning the child, William Brown was busy
making his way down the cliffs to some promising ledges below, and
Nehow, the Otaheitan, clambered up the almost perpendicular face of the
part that rose above them. [See frontispiece.]

It was interesting to watch the movements of the three men. Each was,
in his own way, venturesome, fearless, and more or less practised in
cliff climbing. The midshipman ascended the perpendicular face with
something of a nautical swagger, but inasmuch as the ledges, crevices,
and projections were neither so well adapted to the hands nor so sure as
ratlines and ropes, there was a wholesome degree of caution mingled with
his confidence. When the wished-for ledge was gaine