“Don’t say a word,” cautioned Thirkle.

Riggs and Harris were talking together, but we could not make out what they were saying.  I lay under the bunk at the very feet of Buckrow, dazed and bruised from my fall, yet keenly aware of the situation and strangely cool, thrilled and fascinated with the drama being played about me.

I knew that I had small chance of escaping with my life if my presence should be discovered by the men who lay in wait for Harris and the captain; but it was not fear which kept me an auditor when I might well have been an actor to good purpose.  I desired to see what would be the end of the act, and, far from being terrorized as I should have been, I enjoyed the invisible scene.  It was not that I was unmindful of the danger, but that I was surprised at myself for feeling no fear.

“I’ll give all hands a minute to get up, and if they ain’t, I’ll be down,” thundered Harris.  “I know yer down thar, Buckrow, along with Jim and the red chap, and I know yer game.  If I have to go down I’ll kill a couple of ye, lay to that; so ye can come up and save yer necks, or take yer chances if I go below.”

“Pass him some insolence,” said Thirkle.  “We’ve got to get out of here.  Give him lip, Buckrow, so he’ll come down, or he’ll batten down on us until morning, and ye know what that means.”

“What ye want of me?” called Buckrow.

“Ye stabbed the Dutchman, ye murderin’ hound,” said Harris.  “Ye know what I want ye for well enough, and if ye don’t come up I’ll see that Jim and Petrak swing with ye.”

“I didn’t kill nobody,” said Buckrow.  “Ye want to blame it on me, don’t ye, ye big monkey.”

“It was you that stabbed him and then took a shot at me.  I know ye, Buckrow, and I’ll have the life of ye if ye don’t come up.”

“Petrak was the one what killed the mate,” said Buckrow.  “It was Petrak done for the Dutchman, sir.  I ain’t no murderer, sir, Mr. Harris, but a sailorman what does his duty as he sees it, sir.”

“Come on deck then and we’ll see about that,” said Harris, who seemed to think that Buckrow’s play of fear of him was genuine.

“Come down and get me.  Ye don’t dare come down, ye big bucko.  I know the likes of ye!  Come down and get me, if ye dare.”

“Is this mutiny?  I’ll have the lot of ye hanged!  I don’t stand for no such business aboard me,” cried Captain Riggs, and the trio below stifled their laughter.

“Naow let me handle this, cap’n,” we heard Harris say.  “I’ll go down and break this myself.  This ain’t no time to argue ’bout mutinies; this ain’t.”

“Give him a dirty insult, Bucky,” whispered Thirkle.  “Give it to him hard or the old master will argue him out of coming down.”

“Come down, ye swine!  Come down ye low-born coward and take me if ye can.  That’s what I say to ye.  It’s me, Buckrow, foremast hand that’s talkin’ to the mate of the Kut Sang, who’s a dog.”