ut man forward,
hearing the yells and groans of his comrades, and seeing what was up,
took refuge in the foretop, thus leaving the seven remaining Greeks, one
or two of whom had suffered in the fray, practically masters of the
ship, which was yawing about like a drunken man, and backing and filling
as she veered this way and that without any guidance or control, nobody
being at the helm.

Two of the Greeks placing themselves on either side of the cabin hatch
to give a warm reception to the captain and the rest of the Englishmen
whom the noise had fully wakened up, for they were heard stirring below,
the remainder distributed themselves in the rigging, and started an
exciting hunt after the three who had sought safety aloft.

The steersman was the first caught, and the sweep of a knife blade
across the rope end by which he had lowered himself from the extreme tip
of the mizzen yard-arm, sent him dropping into the sea with a faint
despairing scream; but, the first mate and lookout man led them a fine
dance, up the shrouds on one side and down on the other, and shifting
from the mizzen to the mainmast, and from that to the foretop again by
sliding down the stays, or catching hold of the falls and halliards when
the pursuit grew too hot--until both parties, the hunters and the hunted
alike, paused for a moment to draw breath.

As they did so, the two Englishmen who were now together in the
mizzen-top, and the Greeks who were ascending the shrouds on either
hand--the former looking down on the quarter-deck below them, and the
latter gazing towards the land that had just been sighted--uttered as if
in chorus an exclamation of joy, the echo of which from the others
seemed to bewilder both the Greeks and Englishmen.

It was a curious coincidence, the opposite causes for the gratulation on
either side coming together as it were, but so it was.

At the very moment the mutineers had stopped in their murderous chase of
the first mate and the remaining British sailor, Captain Harding,
holding a revolver in each hand, came up through the cabin skylight, as
if propelled by some hidden machinery below--Tom, Charley, and the
steward, all armed to the teeth, jumping up after him.

"Death to the traitorous scoundrels!" exclaimed Captain Harding,
levelling the revolver in his right hand at one of the Greeks who
remained by the companion, paralysed by the unexpected appearance of
those below from a quarter he had never imagined, while