Although obvious retorts were many, Roger made no reply.
Now Kipping spoke up mildly and innocently:--
"What'll we do? We can't land--the Malays was waiting for us on shore with knives, all ready to cut our throats. We can't go to sea like this. What'll we do?"
"Supposing," cried old Blodgett, sarcastically, "supposing you row back to Salem. It's only three thousand miles or more. You'll find it a pleasant voyage, I'm sure, and you'd ought to run into enough Ladronesers and Malays to make it interesting along the way."
"Ain't we human?" Kipping whined, as if trying to wring pity from even Blodgett. "Ain't you going at least to give us a keg o' water and some bread?"
"If you're not out of gunshot in five minutes," Roger cried, "I'll train the long gun and blow you clean out of water."
Without more ado they rowed slowly away, growing smaller and smaller, until at last they passed out of sight round the point.
"Ah me," sighed Neddie Benson, "I'm glad they're gone. It's funny Falk ain't quite a light man nor yet a real dark man."
"_Gone_!" Davie repeated ominously. "_I_ wish they was gone." He looked up at the furled sails. "They ain't--and neither is we."
"There's work to be done," said Roger, "and we must be about it. Leave the nets as they are. Stack the muskets in the waist, pile the pikes handy by the deckhouse, and all lay aft. We'd best have a few words together before we begin."
A moment later, as I was busy with the pikes, Roger came to me and murmured, "There's something wrong afoot. The after-hatch has been pried off."
I noticed the hatch once more the next time I passed it, and I remembered seeing the man from Boston emerge from the hold. But there was so much else to be attended to that it was a long, long time before I thought of it again.
When we had done as Roger told us, we gathered round him where he waited, leaning against the cabin, with his hands in his pockets.
"We're all in the same boat together, men," he began. "We knew what the chances were when we took them. If you wish to have it so, in the eyes of the law we're pirates and mutineers, and since Falk seems to have got away with what money there was on board, things may go hard with us. _But_--" he spoke the word with stern emphasis--"_but_ we've acted for the best, and I think there's no one here wants to try to square things up by putting Falk in command again. How about it?"