to it. Perhaps you were drunk when you signed, but I have nothing to do with that."
"I don't drink," I replied, and such was and is a fact. "This is all a put-up job."
"Hold your tongue!" cried the captain. "Hold your tongue, or I'll crack your head open with a marlinspike! I don't allow any one to talk back to me. Lowell, take him forward."
"Come along," said the sailor. "If the old man gets his dander up it will be all day with you," he added in a whisper.
For a moment I stood irresolute. I had a momentary idea of jumping overboard and swimming for liberty. But land could be seen fully a good half-mile away, and no vessels of consequence were near, so I was forced to give such a course up.
I walked forward, but my mind was in a whirl. Never before had I been so completely taken in. Surely this was escaping from the law with a vengeance!
"Who owns this boat?" I asked, as we reached the forecastle. "Captain Hannock. She's just as good a two-masted schooner as sails, is the Spitfire; so you have no reason to complain."
"Where are we bound?"
