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“Got to put down mutiny though the heavens fall,” he said painfully.

“Right you are, Seldom,” answered one. “Here, Jackson, Benson–drag him forrard; and, Seldom,” he added, reprovingly, “don’t you ever try it again. Want to be captain, hey? You can’t; you don’t know enough. You couldn’t command my wheelbarrow. Here’s three days’ work to clear up the muss you’ve made.”

But in this they spoke more, and less, than the truth. The steamer, going slowly, and steering with a bridle from the tow-line to each quarter, kept the ship’s canvas full until her crew had steadied the yards and furled it. They would then have rigged preventer-stays and shrouds on their shaky spars, had there been time; but there was not. An uncanny appearance of the sea to leeward indicated too close proximity to the shoals, while a blackening of the sky to windward told of probable increase of wind and sea. And the steamer waited no longer. With a preliminary blast of her whistle, she hung the weight of the ship on the starboard bridle, gave power to her engines, and rounded to, very slowly, head to sea, while the men on the ship, who had been carrying the end of the coiled hawser up the foretopmast rigging, dropped it and came down hurriedly.

Released from the wind-pressure on her strong side, which had somewhat steadied her, the ship now rolled more than she had done in the trough, and with every starboard roll were ominous creakings and grindings aloft. At last came a heavier lurch, and both crippled topmasts fell, taking with them the mizzentopgallantmast. Luckily, no one was hurt, and they disgustedly cut the wreck adrift, stayed the fore- and mainmasts with the hawser, and resigning themselves to a large subtraction from their salvage, went to a late breakfast–a savory meal of smoking fried ham and potatoes, hot cakes and coffee served to sixteen in the cabin, and an unsavory meal of “hardtack-hash,” with an infusion of burnt bread-crust, pease, beans, and leather, handed, but not served, to three in the forecastle.

Three days later, with Sandy Hook lighthouse showing through the haze ahead, and nothing left of the gale but a rolling ground-swell, the steamer slowed down so that a pilot-boat’s dinghy could put a man aboard each craft. And the one who climbed the ship’s side was the pilot that had taken her to sea, outward bound, and sympathized with her crew. They surrounded him on the poop and asked for news, while the three men forward looked aft hungrily, as though they would have joined the meeting, but dared not. Instead of giving news, the pilot asked questions, which they answered.

“I knew you’d taken charge, boys,” he said at length. “The whole world knows it, and every man-of-war on the Pacific stations has been looking for you. But they’re only looking out there. What brings you round here, dismasted, towing into New York?”

“That’s where the ship’s bound–New York. We took her out; we bring her home. We don’t want her–don’t belong to us. We’re law-abidin’ men.”

“Law-abiding men?” asked the amazed pilot.

“You bet. We’re goin’ to prosecute those dogs of ours forrard there to the last limit o’ the law. We’ll show ’em they can’t starve and hammer and shoot free-born Americans just ’cause they’ve got guns in their pockets.”

The pilot looked forward, nodded to one of the three, who beckoned to him, and asked:

“Who’d you elect captain?”

“Nobody,” they roared. “We had enough o’ captains. This ship’s an unlimited democracy–everybody just as good as the next man; that is, all but the dogs. They sleep on the bunk-boards, do as they’re told, and eat salt mule and dunderfunk–same as we did goin’ out.”

“Did they navigate for you? Did no one have charge of things?”

“Poop-deck picked up navigation, and we let him off steerin’ and standin’ lookout. Then Seldom, here, he wanted to be captain just once, and we let him–well, look at our spars.”