Page:A Sailor Boy with Dewey.djvu/27

Rh those sails," pleaded Dawson, taking hold of his chief's arm. "It won't do to lose 'em, you know."

"Didn't I say I'd take care of 'em when I'm—hic—through with these fellows?" was the surly return. "Stand back, Dawson!" and now the captain rushed forward and leveled his pistol at my head. "You march to the brig, and be quick about it, or I'll"

What Captain Kenny would have done, had I refused to march as ordered, I never learned, for while he was speaking Dan made a rush forward and caught the pistol from his hand and sent him flat on his back, in the bargain. Then my companion stepped to my side, and both of us backed up toward the companion way.

For fully a minute Captain Kenny lay where he had fallen, nobody caring to go to his assistance. Then he cried loudly to the sailors to help him get up, and they did so. In the meantime Tom Dawson stood by, scratching his head in perplexity.

"Captain, we must attend to the sails," he began, when there came a sudden puff of air, and the Dart seemed to fairly stand up on ends. I had to catch hold of the companion way rail to keep from falling, and Dan held on, too. Captain Kenny collapsed and went sliding into the mainmast, and then toward the lee rail.