But some one else might speak with better effect."
"Do you think I had better?"
Ralph spoke doubtfully, realizing that he also was no favorite with
Gary.
"You might bring it about in some way. I certainly owe Captain Gary no
favors, yet I should hate to stand by and see those fiends cut their
way out, and say nothing. They would murder every soul on board."
Later on, Ralph found a chance to tell the captain what Duff had told
him. Gary's scowl deepened.
"Duff told you this, did he?" demanded the skipper suspiciously. "Out
with the truth."
Ralph acknowledged that the second mate was his informant.
"Stuff! Haven't we a sentry there constantly?"
"But the sentry isn't always at his post, so Mr. Duff says. He was
away today when we heard the noises."
"And you heard them, too! The mate tattling to the cabin boy, and both
peaching on the poor sentry, who is, I dare say, more trusty than
either one of you two. Go forward, and stay there until you are bidden
back. Rank mutiny, by thunder!"
Gary stamped his foot, more with the air of one demented than that of a
sane and sober commander. Indeed the situation was sufficiently grave
without this new complication.
Several of the negroes had already died, and more were down helpless
beneath the feet of their thirst-tortured but more able-bodied fellow
sufferers. The howls and lamentations that continually ascended
through the grating were trying to the nerves, aside from
considerations of profit and loss.
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