short of sailors. But I didn't pay much attention to th' underhand talk
until it was too late. Then, all at once, when we had got away down
about off Anegada, th' mutiny broke in full force. The men riz up, an'
overpowered th' officers--th' captain was made a prisoner in his cabin,
an' I was given my choice of joinin' th' mutineers or walkin' th'
plank."

"What's that?" asked Ruth, a bit startled.

"That's when they blindfold a man, and make him walk a plank that is put
out over the bulwarks, or side of the ship," said Alice.

"Why, if he were blindfolded I should think he'd fall off, not knowing
when he came to the end," Ruth remarked, with a little shudder.

"He doesn't know," Alice said. "That's an easy way of sending a man to
his doom."

"That's it, Miss!" chimed in Jack. "You got th' idea!"

"But Alice, how did _you_ know that dreadful thing?" her sister
wonderingly demanded.

"Read it in a book. Go on please, Mr.--er--Jack."

"Of course I didn't want t' walk no plank," resumed the sailor, "so I
temporized. I thought maybe I could beat th' mutineers after all. So I
pretended t' join 'em. Things got pretty bad. Many of 'em was for
puttin' th' captain away--tossin' him overboard, an' there was a fight
about it. Matters got t' such a pass that pistols were fired, an' th'