Chapter I: Front Matter

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

I IN 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

V IN 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 Mystery 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_.

I

IN WHICH WE SAIL FOR CANTON, CHINA