There was no malice in it; they simply
barred his way to freedom. He leaped from combing to combing of the open
hatches. It was thirty feet to the bottom of any one of these empty
tanks, and those who followed did so at creeping speed.
He was clear of the mob. A light bound and he was on the ship's rail
beside the after-rigging.
The captain, leaning as far out as the chart deck would allow, shook a
raging arm at Kieran. "You'll assault, you'll batter my men right and
left, will you, you crazy mutineer?"
"Don't call me a mutineer, captain--I've disobeyed no order."
"You are a mutineer. I declare you one now. And you'll go into irons."
"You'll never put me in irons."
"You'll go into irons or you'll go over the side."
[Illustration: "Don't call me a mutineer, captain--I've disobeyed no
order"]
"Well, maybe I'll go over the side. But before I go, if I have to go,
I'll have a word to say. You've been trying to break my nerve from the
beginning. I know your kind that bully and starve your crew, and won't
have a man on your ship that you can't bully and starve. And so you set
your bully bosun to do me--do me to death, if he had to. And when he's
not clever enough nor able enough, you'd put me in irons--in irons here
on the high seas--out here where no law can get you!"
The first officer was now on the deck beneath the pump-man.
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