Page:Dave Porter in the South Seas.djvu/271

Rh call it," grumbled the first mate. "I'll be running a tremendous risk."

"Oh, it will be perfectly safe."

"Don't you know that mutiny on the high seas is punishable by death?"

"I do—if you get caught, But you won't get caught. Besides that, please to remember that I am not going to suffer for this cargo affair alone. If I have to stand trial, you'll have to do the same."

"Then you really mean to drag me into it, eh?" said the first mate, sourly.

"Unless you consent to my plan. Why, man, it's dead easy," continued the former supercargo, earnestly. "I know that at least four of the sailors will stand in with us from the start, and we can easily win over the others by the promise of a big reward. All we have got to do is to get Captain Marshall, Billy Dill, and those three boys ashore, and then sail away for some distant port. On the way we can change the name of the bark and I'll fix up the clearance papers, and there you are. You and I can become equal owners, and we can go into the regular Australian-New Zealand trade and make a barrel of money in a few years."

"But supposing some of the men raise a row?"

"We won't give them a chance, until we are out on the ocean. We can tell them—after the captain's crowd is gone—that you have orders to try