Brutal!" "S'pose it was my doing, sir," said the boatswain, touching his cap; "but I asked leave of Mr Brooke first, and he said yes." "What, to tie the poor wretches up like that, sir, and half of them wounded!" "Beg pardon, sir; there was no other way handy.

We lashed their arms behind 'em to keep 'em from knifing us, and then they kept on jumping overboard, and trying to drown themselves.

We haven't hurt them." "Cast them loose at once." "Yes, sir; I should like half-a-dozen strong chaps in the boat, though." "Well, take them," said Mr Reardon, who was speaking less severely now.
"I'll have the uninjured men in irons this time.

Be careful." "And if I'd my way, I'd have 'em all in iron boxes, 'cept their hands." The boatswain said this to me, with a nod, as the first lieutenant turned away, and, unable to control my curiosity, I sprang up on the bulwark to look into the boat.
"Let's have a look too," cried Smith, and he jumped up to gain a position much closer than mine, but quitted his hold and dropped back on deck, lost his footing, and came down sitting; for, as he leaned over the boat's gunnel, one of the prisoners made a sudden snap at him, after the fashion of an angry dog, and the marines burst into a roar of laughter.
Smith got up scowling and indignant.
"My hands slipped," he said to me aloud.

And then, to carry off his confusion, "How many are there, Herrick ?" "Three lots of six," I said, as I now saw plainly enough how it was that the prisoners were in such a strange position.