rself thet I shouldn't give ye a thunderin' hidin', sich ez I hanker
arter, hey? I'm jiggered, too, if I don't, ye young whelp! Fur I guess
ye wer kinder in truck with thet durned nigger when he tried to pizen me
an' Mister Flinders. I'll skin ye alive, though ye aren't bigger nor a
spritsail sheet knot, my joker, fur ye hevn't got half enuff yet, I
reckon!"

So saying, he picked up the rope's-end that he had dropped when he took
out his revolver, and was evidently about to lay it on my poor trembling
back again, when another groan came from the men forward, who still hung
about the windlass bitts, instead of going below after squaring the
yards. Tom Bullover's voice, I could hear, again taking the lead, as
they advanced in a body aft, in a much more demonstrative manner than
previously.

"Stow that now, and leave the boy alone," I heard him say. "You've
wallopped him already; and there's been enough murder done in the ship!"

Captain Snaggs let fall the cat he had taken in his hand to thrash me
with, and once more pulled out from his pocket the revolver; but, in the
half-light that lingered now after the sunset glow had faded out of the
sky, I noticed, as I screwed my neck round, looking to see what he was
doing, that his hand trembled. The next moment he dropped the revolver
on the deck as he had done the rope's-end.

"Who's talkin' of murder? Thet's an ugly word," he stammered out,
evidently frightened at the result of his rage against poor Sam, and the
way in which the crew regarded it. "I--I only shot thet nigger because
he pizened me an' the first-mate."

"You should have put hims in ze irons," interposed the second-mate, Jan
Steenbock, speaking in his deep, solemn tones from the poop above. "Ze
mans vas murdert in ze cold blood!"

I could see Captain Snaggs shiver--all his coarse, bullying manner and
braggadocio deserting him, as Jan Steenbock's accents rang through the
ship, like those of an accusing judge; the index finger of the
second-mate's right hand pointing at him, as he leant over the poop
rail, like the finger of Fate!

"I did not mean to shoot the coon like to kill him, I only meant to
kinder frighten the life out of him, thet's all," he began, in an
exculpatory tone, regaining his usual confidence as he proceeded. "The
durned cuss brought it on hisself, I reckon; fur, if he hedn't climb'd
into the riggin' he wouldn't hev dropped overboard!"

"But, you vas shoot him ze first," said J