her. For half a minute or more
neither was successful.

But the mate was the better man in the rough-and-tumble fight. He
suddenly lifted Drew from the ground and flung him to the ground. But
Ditty fell too, landing heavily on his victim.

The shock almost deprived Drew of breath. The wound in his head had
confused him. His grasp on Ditty relaxed, and with a yell of triumph
the latter released himself, leaped to his feet, seizing the club as he
arose.

"Now I've got you!" he yelled, and swung the club aloft.

At that moment Captain Hamilton shot Ditty through the breast. With a
snarl, the mate, losing the club, hurled himself toward the captain and
grappled with him. They went down, the latter's head striking the
ground so that he was dazed for a moment.

The mutineer jerked the knife from his belt and raised it to strike;
but Tyke Grimshaw, who had been fighting furiously, kicked the knife
from his hand and the captain, recovering, threw his enemy from him and
arose.

Ditty did not rise. The remaining mutineers wavered when their leader
fell, then turned to flee.

"After them, my lads!" cried Captain Hamilton. "We've got 'em on the
run!"

But the battle ended abruptly.

In the excitement of the fight, none had noticed the black cloud
shooting up from the crater so close at hand. There was a stupendous
roar, and the earth shook again as though twisted between the fingers
of a Titan. The crashing of trees in the forest, and the bursting of
hot lava spewed out of the volcano, grew into a cannonade.

Prone on the ground, terrified and bewildered before this awful seismic
phenomenon, neither belligerent party thought of fighting. Not until
the uproar and quaking had subsided some minutes later, could they
reconcile themselves to the conviction that by a miracle only were they
alive.

The mutineers crept away into the forest unmolested. Gradually the
others regained self-control. Tyke nursed the lame foot which had done
such timely service in thwarting Ditty, while the captain tallied up
his losses. Two of the faithful seamen were dead, Ashley and Trent,
and several were rather badly wounded, while none had emerged from the
struggle without some injury. Five of the mutineers had been killed,
and three more were severely though not mortally wounded.

Drew had at first thought that the wound inflicted by Ditty's bullet
was slight. But suddenly a deadly weakness came over him. He seemed
to be