choose your own
watches any way you please. But the ship's work must be done, and done
properly. If it isn't, then the grub stops. That will do. Now go
for'ard."

"One thing more, sir," he said quickly. "Bert Rhine is awful bad. He
can't see, sir. It looks like he's going to lose his face. He can't
sleep. He groans all the time."

* * * * *

It was a busy day. I made a selection of things from the medicine-chest
for the acid-burned gangster; and, finding that Murphy knew how to
manipulate a hypodermic syringe, entrusted him with one.

Then, too, I practised with the sextant and think I fairly caught the sun
at noon and correctly worked up the observation. But this is latitude,
and is comparatively easy. Longitude is more difficult. But I am
reading up on it.

All afternoon a gentle northerly fan of air snored the _Elsinore_ through
the water at a five-knot clip, and our course lay east for land, for the
habitations of men, for the law and order that men institute whenever
they organize into groups. Once in Valparaiso, with police flag flying,
our mutineers will be taken care of by the shore authorities.

Another thing I did was to rearrange our watches aft so as to split up
the three storm-visitors. Margaret took one in her watch, along with the
two sail-makers, Tom Spink, and Louis. Louis is half white, and all
trustworthy, so that, at all times, on deck or below, he is told off to
the task of never letting the topaz-eyed one out of his sight.

In my watch are the steward, Buckwheat, Wada, and the other two topaz-
eyed ones. And to one of them Wada is told off; and to the other is
assigned the steward. We are not taking any chances. Always, night and
day, on duty or off, these storm-strangers will have one of our proved
men watching them.

* * * * *

Yes; and I tried the stranger men out last evening. It was after a
council with Margaret. She was sure, and I agreed with her, that the men
for'ard are not blindly yielding to our bringing them in to be prisoners
in Valparaiso. As we tried to forecast it, their plan is to desert the
_Elsinore_ in the boats as soon as we fetch up with the land. Also,
considering some of the bitter lunatic spirits for'ard, there would be a
large chance of their drilling the _Elsinore's_ steel sides and scuttling
her ere they took to the boats. For scuttling a ship is surely as
ancient a practice as mutiny on the high seas.

So it was, at one in the morni