Part 38 (1/2)
”Your denial is worth nothing. I have a right to throw you into irons, and may yet do it. At present I have other business in hand.”
He left Robert, and walked back to Frank Price, who, not having Robert's courage, had been a terrified listener to the colloquy between him and the captain.
”Now, boy,” he said, harshly, ”I will give you a lesson that you shall remember to the latest day of your life. Bring me the cat.”
The barbarous cat, as it was called, once in use on our s.h.i.+ps, was brought, and Captain Haley signaled to one of the sailors to approach.
”Bates,” he said, in a tone of authority, ”give that boy a dozen lashes.”
Bates was a stout sailor, rough in appearance, but with a warm and kindly heart. He had a boy of his own at home, about the age of Frank Price, and his heart had warmed to the boy whose position he felt to be far from an enviable one.
The task now imposed upon him was a most distasteful and unwelcome one.
He was a good sailor, and aimed on all occasions to show proper obedience to the commands of his officers, but now he could not.
”Captain Haley,” he said, not stirring from his position, ”I hope you will excuse me.”
”Is this mutiny?” roared the captain.
”No, Captain Haley. I always mean to do my duty on board s.h.i.+p.”
”I have told you to flog this boy!”
”I can't do it, Captain Haley. I have a boy of my own about the size of that lad there, and, if I struck him, I'd think it was my own boy that stood in his place.”
This unexpected opposition excited the fierce resentment of the captain.
He felt that a crisis had come, and he was determined to be obeyed.
”Unless you do as I bid you, I will keep you in irons for the rest of the voyage!”
”You are the captain of this s.h.i.+p, and can throw me in irons, if you like,” said Bates, with an air of dignity despite his tarred hands and sailor jacket. ”I have refused to do no duty that belongs to me. When I signed my name to the s.h.i.+p's papers, I did not agree to flog boys.”
”Put him in irons!” roared the captain, incensed. ”We will see who is captain of this s.h.i.+p!”
The mandate was obeyed, and Bates was lodged in the forecastle, securely ironed.
The captain himself seized the cat, and was about to apply it to the luckless cabin-boy, when a terrible blast, springing up in an instant, as it were, struck the s.h.i.+p, almost throwing it upon its side. There was no time for punishment now. The safety of the s.h.i.+p required instant action, and Frank Price was permitted to replace his jacket without having received a blow.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE CAPTAIN'S REVENGE.
The storm which commenced so suddenly was one of great violence. It required all the captain's seamans.h.i.+p, and the efforts of all the crew, to withstand it. However reluctant to do it, Captain Haley was forced to release Bates from his irons, and order him to duty. The latter worked energetically, and showed that he did not intend to s.h.i.+rk any part of his duties as seaman. But the result of the storm was that the vessel was driven out of her course, and her rigging suffered considerable injury. The wind blew all night. Toward morning it abated, and, as the morning light broke, the lookout described a small island distant about a league.
The captain looked at it through his gla.s.s, and then examined the chart.
”I can't make out what island that is,” he said.