THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA
clocks, chronometers; the forward compass and the ship's bell and belfry, were among the missing.
There were great scarred marks on the deck-planking over which the cargo-derricks had been hauled. One must have fallen by the way, for the bulwark-rails were smashed and bent and the side-plates bruised.
"It 's the Governor," said the skipper. "He 's been selling her on the instalment plan."
"Let 's go up with spanners and shovels, and kill 'em all," 'shouted the crew. "Let 's drown him, and keep the woman!"
"Then we 'll be shot by that black-and-tan regiment—our regiment. What 's the trouble ashore? They've camped our regiment on the beach."
"We 're cut off, that 's all. Go and see what they want," said Mr. Wardrop. "You 've the trousers."
In his simple way the Governor was a strategist. He did not desire that the crew of the Haliotis should come ashore again, either singly or in detachments, and he proposed to turn their steamer into a convict-hulk. They would wait—he explained this from the quay to the skipper in the barge—and they would continue to wait till the man-of-war came along, exactly where they were. If one of them set foot ashore, the entire regiment would open fire, and he would not scruple to use the two cannon of the town. Meantime food would be sent daily in a boat under an armed escort. The skipper, bare to the waist, and rowing, could only grind his teeth; and the Governor improved the occasion, and revenged himself for the bitter words in the cables, by saying what he thought of the morals
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