OAT.

We must now go back in the order of events, and return to the
_Champion_. After the boats had gone away on the expedition which was
to end so disastrously, Mr Lawrie, the surgeon, was walking the deck,
meditating on the responsibility he had undertaken, when Dan Tidy came
up to him and whispered,--"Hist, sir! things are not going on altogether
straight below, I'm after thinking; and if we don't keep a bright
lookout, we shall have the boatswain and the Frenchmen running away with
the ship, and leaving the captain and the rest of the people in the
boats to get back to her if they can. The only chance is that they come
to loggerheads together; for they have been quarrelling away for the
last hour, though what about, for the life of me I cannot make out."

"Then, Tidy, call the true men aft, and I will arm them, and be ready
for whatever may happen," said the surgeon quietly.

Tidy did as directed; and the man at the helm being one who could be
trusted, a cutlass and a brace of pistols were given to him. Scarcely
had these arrangements been made when a number of men came rushing up
the fore-hatchway, some shouting in English and others in French,--
showing the surgeon that, although they might before have been
quarrelling, they were now united for one common object. He guessed
that their intention was to get possession of the helm, as he saw some
of them squaring away the fore-yards.

"If a man advances abaft the mainmast, or touches a brace, we fire!" he
cried out.

"Knock him over!" cried out a voice, which he recognised as that of the
boatswain. "Do as I told you."

"You, my brave fellows, who are resolved to stand faithful to the
captain, be ready with your firearms," cried the surgeon. The boatswain
and the others with him on this uttered loud shouts of derision, and
several shots were fired at the surgeon and his supporters. He was
compelled now to give the order to fire in return. Two of his men had
been wounded; and three or four of the mutineers fell from the steady
fire poured in on them. The rest, led on by the boatswain, now made a
fierce onslaught on the surgeon--he and Tidy being knocked over; but his
party, standing firm, drove back their assailants, and he was able to
recover his feet. A second attack was about to be made, when loud cries
of "Fire! fire!" arose from below, and smoke and flames were seen
issuing up the fore-hatchway. The danger threatening had the effect of
calming th