“Now there is nothing to prevent your going ashore, if you feel so disposed.”
“Will you let the men pull me in to that point?”
“Not much. What is to prevent your swimming?”
“I couldn’t do it, even if there were no sharks hereabout, as there are sure to be. My leg feels as if it was broken.”
“You got off cheaply, and that’s more than can be said for the rest of the gang, since they will have to answer to the authorities for what has been done. If you don’t want to swim, get on board, for I sha’n’t give you the chance of stealing one of these boats.”
The man obeyed without another word, and once on the schooner he crouched under the rail forward as if anxious to escape observation.
Meanwhile, as soon as the yacht was at a reasonably safe distance from the shore, Gil and Nelse went below to learn what the mutineers had done there, and the scene which met their gaze was well calculated to fill them with mingled feelings of anger and dismay.
One would have said that a hundred men had been amusing themselves with trying to see how much mischief could be done in a given length of time. The contents of the staterooms were dragged into the cabin, where they might be examined leisurely, and left lying on the floor. Food of all kinds was scattered in every direction, and as much wasted as would have served the rightful crew of the yacht for many days.
“We ought to be thankful we have got the _Day Dream_ back in any condition,” Gil said, with a long-drawn sigh; “but it is more than provoking to think we gave that crowd the opportunity of destroying things.”
“All the weapons, watches and money are gone,” Nelse added; “but from what your father said I don’t fancy the amount of cash is enough to make them very rich, and we’ll soon repair damages, so it won’t pay to mourn a great deal. Let’s do what we can toward setting things to rights.”
While the boys were engaged in this work, Andy was surveying his quarters, and if harsh words could have injured the mutineers, not one would have been left alive five minutes after he saw the condition of his kitchen.
They had not spent so much time in the galley as aft; but the same scene of wanton destruction met the cook’s gaze, and he attributed the greater portion of it to the voudoos, whose especial domains the boys had threatened to invade.