The snow lies so deep it would cover a man's head--the land is blotted
out, and even the sea freezes--

PETER

Then how could we get ashore?

JONES

I know not.

PETER

And once ashore, how could we find a fair place to build our homes?

JONES

'Tis not for me to say.

PETER

Why can't we land right here, Captain?

JONES

Because your Elder, Master Carver, says fix the ship and go on.

PETER

If Elder Carver says that, then there be naught that we kin do.

JONES

You'd stay packed in the ship's cabin, facing sickness and death,
rather than rise up like men and tell the Elder what you will and what
you won't do, eh?

PETER

Elder Carver and the twelve masters have the voice; we have naught to
do but to obey.

JONES

Can it be that forty English freemen can't vote down twelve masters?

PETER

Under our charter the freemen have no voice.

JONES

Under the charter, eh?

PETER

Aye, so there's naught to do but what the masters say.

JONES

Have you never heard of mutiny?

PETER

Mutiny? Nay, we be lawful men, bound together in the love of Jehovah;
we'll not mutiny! We must abide by our charter.

JONES

The charter, aye.

PETER

So there's naught to do--

JONES

Hold--have you thought on this--the charter binds you under the King's
grant in Virginia Plantation--

PETER

Aye.

JONES

And you are not in Virginia--

PETER

Nay, not yet.

JONES

So you are not bound by the Virginia charter in these waters.

PETER

Forsooth, Captain, I'd not thought on that.

JONES

You have here all the rights of free-born Englishmen. And if you rise
like men and demand that your Elders hearken to your voice, who shall
gainsay you?

PETER

Aye--who--who, indeed? If we vote to land here, 'tis not mutiny.

JONES

Nay, 'tis but your right, if you want to land here.

PETER

We do--we do! Not a man in the company but would stay here if he had
his way.

JONES

Then have your way--like Englishmen! Go to your cabin. Talk to the men
of your company, tell them what I have told you.

PETER

Aye, Captain, I will! At once. [_going_]

JONES

Good! [_sound of door closing_] [_to himself_] Well, Elder Carver, we
shall see whose voice is stronger--yours, or the voice of forty
English freemen!

ANNOUNCER

Thus Captain Jones planted in the mind of one of the freemen of the
Pilgrim company an idea which he was sure would bear fruit before many
hours. He watched th