provisions and water in her. At last the holes were bored, and
the vessel began to fill rapidly. Black Bill was ordered into the
boat, Gualtier saying that he was going to fetch the young lady. The
men all thought then that she had been brought on board merely to be
forced into taking part in the sinking of the vessel. None of them
understood the idea of the thing at all.

They waited for a time, according to Black Bill. The night was
intensely dark, and they could hear nothing, when suddenly Gualtier
came to the boat and got in.

"Where's the girl?" said Black Bill.

"She won't come," said Gualtier, who at the same time unloosed the
boat. "She won't come," he repeated. "Give way, lads."

The "lads" refused, and a great outcry arose. They swore that they
would not leave the vessel without the girl, and that if he did not
go back instantly and get her, they would pitch him overboard and
save her themselves. Black Bill told him they thought it was only an
insurance business, and nothing like this.

Gualtier remained quite calm during this outcry. As soon as he could
make himself heard he told them, in a cool voice, that he was armed
with a revolver, and would shoot them all down if they did not obey
him. He had hired them for this, he said, and they were in for it. If
they obeyed him, he would pay them when they got ashore; if not, he
would blow their brains out. Black Bill said that at this threat he
drew his own pistol and snapped it at Gualtier. It would not go off.
Gualtier then laughed, and said that pistols which had a needle run
down the nipple did not generally explode--by which Black Bill saw
that his pistol had been tampered with.

There was a long altercation, but the end of it was that Gualtier
gave them a certain time to decide, after which he swore that he
would shoot them down. He was armed, he was determined; they were
unarmed, and at his mercy; and the end of it was, they yielded to him
and rowed away. One thing which materially influenced them was, that
they had drifted away from the schooner, and she had been lost in the
deep darkness of the night. Besides, before their altercation was
over, they all felt sure that the vessel had sunk. So they rowed on
sullenly all that night and all the next day, with only short
intervals of rest, guarded all the time by Gualtier, who, pistol in
hand, kept them to their work.

They reached the coast at a point not far from Leghorn. It was a wild
spot, with wo