n quarrellin' wi' me, off an' on,
since the beginning of the voyage, whether I would or not, so it may be
as well to settle the matter now as at another time. I'll do the job on
one consideration."

"What's that?" cried several men.

"That you promises, on your honour (though none o' you's got much o'
_that_), that when I've done the job you agree to make me captain of the
crew. It's a moral impossibility, d'ee see, for people to git along
without a leader, so if I agree to lead you in this, you must agree to
follow me in everything--is it so?"

"Agreed, agreed!" chorused his friends, only too glad that one of the
physically strongest among them--also one of the best-humoured--should
stand up to stem the tide of anarchy which they all clearly saw was
rising among them.

"Well, then," resumed Grummidge, "I see Swinton with his three friends
a-comin'. I'll expect you to stand by an' see fair play, for he's
rather too ready wi' his knife."

While he spoke the comrade in question was seen approaching, with Fred
Taylor and David Garnet, carrying a quantity of cod-fish that had just
been caught.

"You've been holding a meeting, comrades, I think," said Swinton,
looking somewhat suspiciously at the group of men, as he came up and
flung down his load.

"Yes, we have," said Grummidge, advancing, hands in pockets, and with a
peculiar nautical roll which distinguished him. "You're right, Big
Swinton, we _have_ bin havin' a meetin', a sort of trial, so to speak,
an' as you are the man what's bin tried, it may interest you to know
what sentence has bin passed upon you."

"Oh indeed!" returned Swinton, with a look of cool insolence which he
knew well how to assume, no matter what he felt. "Well, yes, it _would_
interest me greatly to hear the sentence of the learned judge--whoever
he is."

The fingers of the man fumbled as he spoke at his waist-belt, near the
handle of his knife. Observing this, Grummidge kept a watchful eye on
him, but did not abate his _nonchalant_ free-and-easy air, as he stepped
close up to him.

"The sentence is," he said firmly but quietly, "that you no longer
presume to give orders as if you was the captain o' this here crew; that
from this hour you fall to the rear and undertake second fiddle--or
fourth fiddle, for the matter o' that; and that you head a party to
guide them in a sarch which is just a-goin' to begin for the two men and
the boy you have so sneakingly betrayed and put on shor