paper. That sort of took the heart out of some of th' mutineers and they
got careless. First we knew a British vessel overhauled us, and, not
likin' th' looks of things, began to ask questions. Of course there
wasn't any captain, such as there should be on a ship, an' that made it
look suspicious. Th' worst of it was that nobody could say where the
captain was. None of us knew.

"Then th' story of th' mutiny came out, of course, an' it was all up.
The Britisher took charge of us. I was arrested as the ringleader of the
mutiny, an' put in chains! An' I had no more to do with it than a baby,
Miss. No more than a baby!" and Jack Jepson looked from Ruth to Alice,
his blue eyes expressing the indignation he had felt at the time.

"An' that's th' story of th' mystery, as I said I'd tell your sister,"
he added turning to Ruth.




CHAPTER V

THE MARY ELLEN


During the silence that followed the rather sudden ending of the old
salt's story, Ruth and Alice looked at each other with wonder in their
eyes. On all sides of them could be heard the clicking of the moving
picture cameras, the loud directions issued by the men who were managing
the different little dramas, and occasionally the sound of shots from
the cowboy play that was going on in front of where our friends were