Make room there ?" We passed the forecastle scum down one after the other, and as the last of these merged into the scarcely distinguishable mass below, I gave vent to a sigh of relief, and straightened up, with pistol still grasped in my hand.

They were now bunched together, all of them, and confined where they would prove the least possible danger.

Desperate and reckless as many of them were, we had them now safely in our own hands--disarmed and imprisoned within narrow limits.

To be sure they might wreck the bark by fire, or otherwise, but that would only peril their own lives, and, no matter how willing some might be to accept this hazard of fortune, there would be more to oppose the proposition--forcibly, if necessary.

For them to escape the only means was through treachery, and against that possibility I must guard.