r'ard--

"Morning, George," I said; "I guess we've got to run on gasolene to-day.
No wind in sight--so far as I can see."

"That's right, sar," said George, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
Presently, he came to me in his big hulking way, and said:

"There ain't no gasolene, sir--"

"No gasolene?" I exclaimed.

"It's run out in the night."

"The tanks were filled when we started, weren't they?" I asked.

"Yes, sir."

"We can't have used them up so soon...."

"No sir,--but some one has turned the cocks...."

I stood dazed for a moment, wondering how this could have
happened,--then a thought slowly dawned upon me.

"Who has charge of them?" I said.

George looked a little stupid, then defiant.

"I see," I said; and, suddenly, without remembering Charlie Webster's
advice not to lose your temper with a negro--I realised that this was no
accident, but a deliberate trick, something indeed in the nature of a
miniature mutiny. That fluttering paper I had picked from the halyard
lay near my breakfast table. I had only half read it. Now its import
came to me with full force. I had no firearms with me. Having a quick
temper, I have made it a habit all my life never to carry a
gun--because they go off so easily. But one most essential part of a
gentleman's education had been mine, so I applied it instantly on
George, with the result that a well-directed blow under the peak of the
jaw sent him sprawling, and for awhile speechless, in the cockpit.

"No gasolene?" I said.

And then my passenger--I must give him credit for the courage--put up
his head for'ard, and called out:

"I protest against that; it's a cowardly outrage. You wouldn't dare to
do it to a white man."

"O I see," I rejoined. "So _you_ are the author of this precious paper
here, are you? Come over here and talk it over, if you've the courage."

"I've got the courage," he answered, in a shaking voice.

"All right," I said; "you're safe for the present--and, George, who is
so fond of sleep, will take quite a nap for a while, I think."

"You English brute!" he said.

"You English brute!" he had said; and the words had impelled me to
invite him aft; for I cannot deny a certain admiration for him that had
mysteriously grown up in me. It can only have been the admiration we all
have for courage; for, certainly I cannot have suggested that he had
any other form of attractiveness.

"Come here!" I said, "for your life is safe for the time being. I