No land could have seemed more beautiful. Groves of banana, orange, and cocoanut trees held out their fruit to me. Forests swept to the summits of the mountains. Flowers were in riotous bloom everywhere. I could almost count the ribs in the glossy fronds of the palms. I could hear the soft crash of the combers on the coral beaches of those enchanted shores. It all looked like paradise and I had missed it by half a mile. When I reached the brig, Mr. Landers permitted me to put on dry clothing and then put me in irons, as the sea phrase is. This consisted in fastening my hands together in front of me with a pair of steel handcuffs of the ordinary kind used by sheriffs and policemen everywhere. Then he made me sit on the main hatch until Captain Winchester came back from Honolulu, along toward sundown. "What's the matter with that man?" roared the captain as he swung over the rail and his eyes lighted on me. "He jumped overboard and tried to swim ashore," said Mr. Landers in his nasal Cape Cod drawl. "Why didn't you get my rifle and shoot him?" thundered the captain. "Well," returned Mr. Landers, "I don't shoot folks." After supper the captain stuck his head out of the cabin gangway. "Come down here, you," he said. I stepped into the cabin, now bright with lighted lamps. The captain glared at me savagely. "You want to give me a bad name with Captain Shorey when he takes command, do you?" he shouted. "You want to make it appear I have been hard on my men, eh? You think you're a smart sea lawyer, but I'll teach you the bitterest lesson you ever learned. We are bound for the Arctic Ocean. There are no ships up there but whale ships, and we do as we please. I have been sailing to the Arctic for thirteen years as master and mate of whale ships and I know just how far I can go in dealing with a man without making myself liable to law. I am going to make it as rough for you as I know how to make it. I will put you over the jumps right. I will punish you to the limit. This ship is going to be a floating hell for you for the rest of the voyage. And when we get back to San Francisco you can prosecute me all you please." He drew a key from his pocket and unlocked one manacle. It dropped from one wrist and dangled from the other. "Boy," he said to the Kanaka cabin boy, who has been listening with open mouth and bulging eyes to this tirade, "get this man a cup of water and a biscuit." I had had nothing to eat since breakfast, and I sat down at the cabin table and ate my one hardtack and drank my quart tin of water with a relish. After my meal, the captain fastened my handcuff again and jerked a little hatch out of the floor. "Get down there," he said.