he fore-hatch black water was bubbling.

Yelping like animals, the sailors stampeded aft in a bunch, bowling over
Mayo and the mates in their rush.

"Stop 'em, captain!" bellowed the first mate, guessing their intent.
He rose and ran after them. But fright gave them wings for their
heels. They scampered over the roof of the after-house, and were on the
quarter-deck before the skipper was out of the alley. They leaped into
the yawl which was swung at the stern davits.

"You renegades!" roared the master. "Come out of that boat!"

With the two mates at his heels he rushed at them. They grabbed three
struggling men by the legs and dragged them back. But the negroes
wriggled loose, driven to frantic efforts by their panic. They threw
themselves into the boat again.

"Be men!" clamored Mayo, joining the forces of discipline. "There's a
woman aboard here!"

But the plea which might have affected an Anglo-Saxon did not prevail.
Their knives were out--not for attack on their superiors, but to slash
away the davit tackle.

"Come on, boys! Throw 'em out!" shouted the master, leading the way into
the yawl over the rail.

His two mates and Mayo followed, and the engineer, freshly arrived from
forward, leaped after them. But as fast as they tossed a man upon the
quarter-deck he was up and in the boat again fighting for a place.

"Throw 'em overboard!" roared the master, venting a terrible oath. He
knocked one of the maddened wretches into the sea. The next moment the
captain was flat on his back, and the sailors were trampling on him.

Most of the surges came riding rail-high; sometimes an especially
violent wave washed the deck aft.

Following it, a chasm regularly opened under the vessel's counter, a
swirling pit in the ocean twenty feet deep.

There was good fortune as well as misfortune in the affair of the yawl.
When at last it dropped it avoided the period of the chasm.

In spite of the efforts of the captain and his helpers the sailors
succeeded in slashing away the davit tackle. A swelling roller came
up to meet the boat as the last strand gave way and swept it, with its
freight, out into the night. But as it went Mayo clutched a davit pulley
and swung in midair.

The dizzy depths of the sea opened under him as he dangled there and
gazed down.

An instant later all his attention was focused on Alma Marston, who
stood in the companionway clutching its sides and shrieking out her
fears. The lantern showed he