r
stores.

It was Margaret, her sailor's eye on the falling barometer and on the
"making" stuff adrift in the sky, who called my attention to a coming
blow.

"As soon as the sea rises," she said, "we'll have that loose main-yard
and all the rest of the top-hamper tumbling down on deck."

So it was that I raised the white flag for a parley. Bert Rhine and
Charles Davis came abaft the 'midship-house, and, while we talked, many
faces peered over the for'ard edge of the house and many forms slouched
into view on the deck on each side of the house.

"Well, getting tired?" was Bert Rhine's insolent greeting. "Anything we
can do for you?"

"Yes, there is," I answered sharply. "You can save your heads so that
when you return to work there will be enough of you left to do the work."

"If you are making threats--" Charles Davis began, but was silenced by a
glare from the gangster.

"Well, what is it?" Bert Rhine demanded. "Cough it off your chest."

"It's for your own good," was my reply. "It is coming on to blow, and
all that unfurled canvas aloft will bring the yards down on your heads.
We're safe here, aft. You are the ones who will run risks, and it is up
to you to hustle your crowd aloft and make things fast and ship-shape."

"And if we don't?" the gangster sneered.

"Why, you'll take your chances, that is all," I answered carelessly. "I
just want to call your attention to the fact that one of those steel
yards, end-on, will go through the roof of your forecastle as if it were
so much eggshell."

Bert Rhine looked to Charles Davis for verification, and the latter
nodded.

"We'll talk it over first," the gangster announced.

"And I'll give you ten minutes," I returned. "If at the end of ten
minutes you've not started taking in, it will be too late. I shall put a
bullet into any man who shows himself."

"All right, we'll talk it over."

As they started to go back, I called:

"One moment."

They stopped and turned about.

"What have you done to Mr. Pike?" I asked.

Even the impassive Bert Rhine could not quite conceal his surprise.

"An' what have you done with Mr. Mellaire!" he retorted. "You tell us,
an' we'll tell you."

I am confident of the genuineness of his surprise. Evidently the
mutineers have been believing us guilty of the disappearance of the
second mate, just as we have been believing them guilty of the
disappearance of the first mate. The more I dwell upon it the more it
se