walking to the waist he hailed the boat:

"Are you all right, Ned?"

"Yes," answered the youth, "but hurry up, Jerry, I think a breeze is
coming."

Running aft, the elder brother sprang up the poop ladder and looked down
through the skylight into the cabin. "Cut Mr. Newman and the steward
adrift," he said to Wray.

Wray disappeared into Captain Lucy's cabin, and at once liberated the
two men, who followed him out into the main cabin.

"Martin Newman," said Rodman, bending down, "just a word with you. You,
I thought, were a shade better than the rest of the bullying scoundrels
who officer this ship. But now, I find, you are no better than Bully
Lucy and the others. If I did justice to my brother, and _another
person_ I would shoot you, like the cowardly dog you are. But stand up
on that table--and I'll tell you why I don't."

The dark features of the fourth mate blanched to a deathly white,
but not with fear. Standing upon the table he grasped the edge of
the skylight, under the flap of which Gerald Rodman bent his head and
whispered to him:

"Do you know why I don't want to hurt you, Martin Newman? When I came
home last year I found out my sister's love for you; I found your
letters to her, and saw her eating her heart out for you day by day, and
waiting for your return. And because I know that she is a dying woman,
and will die happy in the belief that you love her, I said nothing. What
I have now done will prevent my ever seeing her again, though I would
lay my life down for her. But listen to me. Ned will, must, return to
her, and beware, if ever you accuse him of having taken a hand in this
mutiny----"

The hands of the fourth mate gripped the skylight ledge convulsively,
and his black eyes shone luridly with passion. Then his better nature
asserted itself, and he spoke quietly:

"Jerry, I did not know it was Ned whom I struck to-night. I was not
myself.... I never meant to harm _him_. And for Nell's sake, and yours
and Ned's, give up this madness."

"Too late, too late, Newman. I would rather die to-night than spend
another hour on board this ship. But at least, for Nell's sake, you
and I must part in peace," and the mutineer held out his hand. It was
grasped warmly, and then with a simple "goodbye" Rodman turned away,
walked to the poop ladder and called out:

"Into the boat, men!"

Five minutes later they shoved off from the _Shawnee_, whose lofty spars
and drooping canvas towered darkly up in the