ip's an
unlimited democracy--everybody just as good as the next man; that is,
all but the dogs. They sleep on the bunk-boards, do as they're told,
and eat salt mule and dunderfunk--same as we did goin' out."

"Did they navigate for you? Did no one have charge of things?"

"Poop-deck picked up navigation, and we let him off steerin' and
standin' lookout. Then Seldom, here, he wanted to be captain just once,
and we let him--well, look at our spars."

"Poop-deck? Which is Poop-deck? Do you mean to say," asked the pilot
when the navigator had been indicated to him, "that you brought this
ship home on picked-up navigation?"

"Didn't know anything about it when we left Callao," answered the
sailor, modestly. "The steward knew enough to wind the chronometer
until I learned how. We made an offing and steered due south, while I
studied the books and charts. It didn't take me long to learn how to
take the sun. Then we blundered round the Horn somehow, and before long
I could take chronometer sights for the longitude. Of course I know we
went out in four months and used up five to get back; but a man can't
learn the whole thing in one passage. We lost some time, too, chasing
other ships and buying stores; the cabin grub gave out."

"You bought, I suppose, with Captain Benson's money."

"S'pose it was his. We found it in his desk. But we've kept account of
every cent expended, and bought no grub too good for a white man to
eat."

"What dismasted you?"

They explained the meeting with the steamer and Seldom's misdoing; then
requested information about the salvage laws.

"Boys," said the pilot, "I'm sorry for you. I saw the start of this
voyage, and you appear to be decent men. You'll get no salvage; you'll
get no wages. You are mutineers and pirates, with no standing in court.
Any salvage which the _Almena_ has earned will be paid to her owners
and to the three men whom you deprived of command. What you can
get--the maximum, though I can't say how hard the judge will lay it
on--is ten years in state's prison, and a fine of two thousand dollars
each. We'll have to stop at quarantine. Take my advice: if you get a
chance, lower the boats and skip."

They laughed at the advice. They were American citizens who respected
the law. They had killed no one, robbed no one; their wages and
salvage, independently of insurance liabilities, would pay for the
stores bought, and the loss of the spars. They had no fear of any court
of ju