, heavens, they purred! At least, the
inarticulate noises they made sounded more like purring than anything
else. That these sounds meant friendliness was very evident. Also, they
held out their hands, palms upward, in unmistakable sign of peace. Each
in turn doffed his cap and placed my hand for a moment on his head.
Without doubt this meant their offer of fealty, their acceptance of me as
master.

I nodded my head. There was nothing to be said to men who purred like
cats, while sign-language in the light of the bull's-eye was rather
difficult. Tom Spink groaned protest when I told Louis to take them
below and give them blankets.

I made the sleep-sign to them, and they nodded gratefully, hesitated,
then pointed to their mouths and rubbed their stomachs.

"Drowned men do not eat," I laughed to Tom Spink. "Go down and watch
them. Feed them up, Louis, all they want. It's a good sign of short
rations for'ard."

At the end of half an hour Tom Spink was back.

"Well, did they eat?" I challenged him.

But he was unconvinced. The very quantity they had eaten was a
suspicious thing, and, further, he had heard of a kind of ghost that
devoured dead bodies in graveyards. Therefore, he concluded, mere non-
eating was no test for a ghost.

The third event of moment occurred this morning at seven o'clock. The
mutineers called for a truce; and when Nosey Murphy, the Maltese Cockney,
and the inevitable Charles Davis stood beneath me on the main deck, their
faces showed lean and drawn. Famine had been my great ally. And in
truth, with Margaret beside me in that high place of the break of the
poop, as I looked down on the hungry wretches I felt very strong. Never
had the inequality of numbers fore and aft been less than now. The three
deserters, added to our own nine, made twelve of us, while the mutineers,
after subtracting Ditman Olansen, Bob and the Faun, totalled only an even
score. And of these Bert Rhine must certainly be in a bad way, while
there were many weaklings, such as Sundry Buyers, Nancy, Larry, and Lars
Jacobsen.

"Well, what do you want?" I demanded. "I haven't much time to waste.
Breakfast is ready and waiting."

Charles Davis started to speak, but I shut him off.

"I'll have nothing out of you, Davis. At least not now. Later on, when
I'm in that court of law you've bothered me with for half the voyage,
you'll get your turn at talking. And when that time comes don't forget
that I shall