ding near the cook's scuppers fishing for shark
with fat pork for bait. More than once I had caught the flash of a
white-bellied monster, but Mr. Shark was wary about taking chances.

Dugan, our carpenter, stopped as he was passing, apparently to watch us.
Glancing at him I noticed something in his face that held my eyes.

"There's trouble afoot, Mr. Sedgwick," he broke out in a low, jerky
voice. "For God's sake, make a chance for me to talk to you or Captain
Blythe!"

The cook came out of his galley at that moment. My wooden face told no
tales.

"No chance. The beggar's too shy. I've had enough. How about you,
Yeager?"

"Me to," the Arizonian laughed easily, and he hauled up the line.

I strolled forward to the pilot house, stopping to chat for an instant
with Miss Berry, who lay in a steamer chair under the awning. For I had
no intention of letting the men suspect that Dugan had told me anything
of importance.

Blythe was at the wheel. I told him what Dugan had said. Our captain did
not turn a hair.

"There's a shingle loose on the edge of the roof. Call Dugan to nail it
tight."

The carpenter brought a hammer and nails. Tom Yeager meanwhile was
sitting on a coil of rope talking to Caine. His laughter rippled up to
us care-free as that of a schoolboy. He never even glanced our way, but
I knew he would be ready when we needed him.

The captain turned the wheel over to me and stepped outside of the
wheelhouse. Three or four of the men were lounging about the deck. So
far as they could see, Blythe was directing the carpenter about the
work and the latter was explaining how it could be best done.

"Keep cool, my man. Don't let them guess what you are saying," the
Englishman advised, lighting a cigar.

"What have you to tell me?"

"Mutiny, sir. That's what it is. We're after treasure. That's the story
I've heard, and the men mean to take the ship."

I thought of Evelyn and her aunt, and my heart sank.

Sam stretched his arms and yawned.

"When?"

"Don't know, sir. I've picked up only a little here and there. Caine
came to me this morning and asked me if I would go in with them."

Dugan drove two nails into the shingle.

"Do you know which of the men are stanch?"

"No, sir. Can't say as I do, outside of Alderson. Tom's all right."

"What about arms?"

"They have plenty. They've been packed in a bulkhead, but Fleming and
Caine gave them out to the men this morning."

"The deuce! That looks ugly