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enough ransom money to have got clear some way, but now you gone and cooked

the whole goose fer the lot of us."

"You can collect ransom on me," cried Divine, clutching at a straw. "I'll pay a

hundred thousand myself the day you set me down in a civilized port, safe and

free."

Ward laughed in his face.

"You ain't got a cent, you four-flusher," he cried. "Clinker put us next to that long

before we sailed from Frisco."

"Clinker lies," cried Divine. "He doesn't know anything about it--I'm rich."

Wot's de use ob chewin' de rag 'bout all dis," cried Blanco, seeing where he might

square himself with Ward and Simms easily. "Does yo' take back all us sailormen,

Mr. Ward, an' promise not t' punish none o' us, ef we swear to stick by yo' all in

de future?"

Yes," replied the mate.

Blanco took a step toward Divine.

Den yo come along too as a prisoner, white man," and the burly black grasped

Divine by the scruff of the neck and forced him before him down the steep trail

toward the cove, and so the mutineers returned to the command of Skipper

Simms, and L. Cortwrite Divine went with them as a prisoner, charged with a

crime the punishment for which has been death since men sailed the seas.

The Mucker