“Boat ahoy!”

“Ahoy!” answered the captain.

“What do you want?” demanded the sailor on the wreck.  He could scarcely talk straight.

“We want to come on board.”

“Sorry, cap’n, but I can’t let you come aboard,” answered the sailor, with something of a hiccough.

“Can’t let me come aboard?” repeated the captain.  “Why not?”

“Cause it’s ag’in orders.”

“Whose orders?”

“Captain Lesher’s.”

“Captain Lesher!” ejaculated Captain Blossom indignantly.  “How long has he been a captain?”

“We made him cap’n yesterday.”

“That’s right,” put in another sailor.  “We ’lected him unan—­nan—­ nan’mously; yes, sir, unan—­nan—­nan’mously.”

“You are drunk, Bostwick.”

“No, sir, aint drunk at all.—­Lesher, he’s drunk—­but he’s cap’n all the same.”

“That’s right,” put in a third sailor.  “Hurrah for Captain Lesher and the rum he let us have!”

“Got to keep off, I tell you,” went on Bostwick.  “If you don’t, we have—­er—­we have strict orders to fire on you, yes, sir.”

“To fire on us!” cried Dick.—­“Do you mean to say you would fire on us?”

“Now, see here, don’t you put in your oar,” said a fourth sailor.  “You don’t count with us.  It’s the cap’n that was we’re talkin’ to.”

“I am captain still,” said Captain Blossom firmly.  “If you don’t want to obey me, you must leave the ship.”

“Aint going to leave no ship!” was the cry.  “She belongs to us.  You keep off!”

“Yes, yes, keep off!” added the others on the deck.

“The ship is mine,” said the captain.  “If you refuse to let me come on board—­”

At that moment two other figures appeared on deck.

“Dan Baxter and Jack Lesher!” murmured Dick.

“Captain Blossom, you had better keep your distance,” said Lesher in a voice that showed he was just getting over a spell of drunkenness.

“So you too refuse to let me come on board?”

“I do.  The boys have made me their captain, and as such I am bound to look after their interests.  I have told them what you proposed to do, and they don’t intend to stand it.”

“Didn’t I tell you we’d get square?” put in Dan Baxter, his evil face glowing with triumph.  “We have all that is on board, and we mean to keep everything.”

“This is mutiny!” stormed Captain Blossom.

“Call it what you please,” answered Lesher recklessly.  “I reckon I and the boys know what we are doing!”

“That’s right!” cried the half-drunken sailors.  “Hurrah for Cap’n Lesher.  He’s a man after our own hearts!”

“Supposing I demand to be let on board?” went on Captain Blossom.

“Don’t ye go, cap’n,” whispered old Jerry.  “They are in jest a fit mood to kill ye.  The rum has put the Old Nick in ’em.”

“You can’t come on board, and that settles it,” roared Jack Lesher, drawing a pistol.  “Keep your distance.”