teps, reaching for his pistol as
he landed, only to pinion his fingers in a large hole in the pocket.
Wildly he struggled to reclaim his weapon, down his trouser leg, held
firmly to his knee by the tight rubber boot; but he could not reach it.
His anxious face betrayed his predicament to the wakening men, and when
he looked into Mr. Jackson's revolver, held by Sinful Peck, he
submitted to being bound to the fife-rail and gagged with the end of
the topgallant-sheet--a large rope, which just filled his mouth, and
hurt. Then the firearm was recovered, and the descent upon the
dinner-party quickly planned and carried out.

Have you ever seen a kennel of hunting-dogs released on a fine day
after long confinement--how they bark and yelp, chasing one another,
biting playfully, rolling and tumbling over and over in sheer joy and
healthy appreciation of freedom? Without the vocal expression of
emotion, the conduct of these men after that wine dinner was very
similar to that of such emancipated dogs. They waltzed, boxed,
wrestled, threw each other about the deck, turned handsprings and
cartwheels,--those not too weak,--buffeted, kicked, and clubbed the
suffering Mr. Becker, reviled and cursed the unconscious captain and
chief officer, and when tired of this, as children and dogs of play,
they turned to their captives for amusement. The second mate was taken
from the fife-rail, with hands still bound, and led to the forecastle;
the gags of all and the bonds of the cook were removed, and the
forecastle dinner was brought from the galley. This they were invited
to eat. There was a piece of salt beef, boiled a little longer than
usual on account of the delay; it was black, brown, green, and
iridescent in spots; it was slippery with ptomaines, filthy to the
sight, stinking, and nauseating. There were potatoes, two years old,
shriveled before boiling--hard and soggy, black, blue, and bitter after
the process. And there was the usual "weevily hardtack" in the
bread-barge.

Protest was useless. The unhappy captives surrounded that dinner on the
forecastle floor (for there was neither table to sit at, nor chests,
stools, or boxes to sit on, in the apartment), and, with hands behind
their backs and disgust in their faces, masticated and swallowed the
morsels which the Chinese cook put to their mouths, while their
feelings were further outraged by the hilarity of the men at their
backs, and their appetites occasionally jogged into activit