ll try what larrupin' will do!"

So saying, he ordered a couple of the hands standing by to seize me up
to the weather rigging; and taking hold of a thick piece of rope, which
he had brought with him out of the cabin, he proceeded to deliver blows
about my back and shoulders that made me howl again, the strokes seeming
to tear the flesh from my bones.

"Won't ye tell, hey?" he exclaimed between each stroke of the improvised
cat, which lashed as well, I can answer, as if it had nine tails; "won't
ye tell, hey?"

At the third stroke, however, he himself fell upon the deck, putting his
hands to his stomach and rolling about doubled up almost in two in his
agony; although, when the paroxysm of pain had ceased for the moment, he
got up on his feet once more and began lashing away at me again.

But, my deliverer was at hand.

Just as he raised his arm to deliver a fourth stripe across my back, and
I shrank back in expectation of it, I heard Sam Jedfoot's voice,--

"'Top dat, massa cap?" he called out. "What fur yer lick dat b'y fur?"

"Oh, it's ye, is it?" roared the skipper, turning on him with a snarl.
"I wer comin' fur ye presently, ye durned cuss! But, ez ye air hyar,
why, ye scoundrel, what did ye make thet b'y do to the dinner? Me an'
the mate is both pizened."

"De b'y didn't do nuffin, an' yer ain't pizened, nor Mass' Flinders,
neider," said Sam calmly, interrupting the captain before he could
scream out another word; "I'se dun it alone. I'se put jalap in the fowl
a puppose!"

"Ye did, did ye!" yelled the captain fiercely; and there was a savage
vindictiveness in his voice that I had not noticed previously, as he
turned round to address the second-mate and a number of the men, who had
gathered round at the noise made by the altercation, those that had
turned in turning out, and even the look-out coming from off the
fo'c's'le away aft to see what was going on. "Men, ye've heard this
tarnation villain confess thet he's tried to pizen Mr Flinders an'
myself. Now ye'll see me punish him!"

With these words, which he spoke quite calmly, without a trace of
passion, he drew out a revolver from the pocket of his jacket, cocking
it with a click that struck a cold chill to my heart, and made me
shudder more convulsively than even the brute's lashes had done the
moment before.

"Bress de Lor'! don' shoot me, cap'n!" cried poor Sam, edging away from
the fatal weapon, as Captain Snaggs raised it; "don't shoot, f