Preface

Produced by Paul Hollander, Lazar Liveanu and the PG

Distributed Proofreaders

THE MUTINEERS

A tale of old days at sea and of adventures in the Far East as Benjamin Lathrop set it down some sixty years ago

by Charles Boardman Hawes

Illustrated

To D.C.H.

TO PAY MY SHOT

To master, mate, and men of the ship Hunter, whose voyage is the backbone of my story; to Captain David Woodard, English mariner, who more than a hundred and twenty years ago was wrecked on the island of Celebes; to Captain R.G.F. Candage of Brookline, Massachusetts, who was party to the original contract in melon seeds; and to certain blue-water skippers who have left sailing directions for eastern ports and seas, I am grateful for fascinating narratives and journals, and indebted for incidents in this tale of an earlier generation.

C.B.H.

CONTENTS

IIN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA

I My Father and I Call on Captain Whidden

II Bill Hayden

III The Man Outside the Galley

IV A Piece of Pie

V Kipping

II IN WHICH WE ENCOUNTER an ARAB SHIP

VI The Council in the Cabin

VII The Sail with a Lozenge-Shaped Patch

VIII Attacked

IX Bad Signs

X The Treasure-Seeker

III WHICH APPROACHES A CRISIS

XI A Hundred Thousand Dollars in Gold

XII A Strange Tale

XIII Trouble Forward

XIV Bill Hayden Comes to the End of His Voyage

IV IN WHICH THE TIDE OF OUR FORTUNES EBBS

XV Mr. Falk Tries to Cover His Tracks

XVI A Prayer for the Dead

XVII Marooned

XVIII Adventures Ashore

VIN WHICH THE TIDE TURNS

XIX In Last Resort

XX A Story in Melon Seeds

XXI New Allies

XXII We Attack

XXIII What We Found in the Cabin

VI IN WHICH WE REACH THE PORT OF OUR DESTINATION

XXIV Falk Proposes a Truce

XXV Including a Cross-Examination

XXVI an Attempt to Play on Our Sympathy

XXVII We Reach Whampoa, but Not the End of Our Troubles

VII OLD SCORES AND NEW AND A DOUBTFUL WELCOME

XXVIII A My stery Is Solved and a Thief Gets Away

XXIX Homeward Bound

XXX Through Sunda Strait

XXXI Pikes, Cutlasses, and Guns

XXXII"So Ends"

ILLUSTRATIONS

"At'em, men! At'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull!"

Suddenly, in the brief silence that followed the two thunderous reports, a pistol shot rang out sharply, and I saw Captain Whidden spin round and fall.

We helped him pile his belongings into his chest … and gave him a hand on deck.

"Sign that statement, Lathrop,"said Captain Falk.

He cut from the melon-rind a roughly shaped model of a ship and stuck in it, to represent masts, three slivers of bamboo.

[Illustration:"At'em, men! At'em! Pull, you sons of the devil, pull!"]

IIN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA