When the party charged with this disgraceful office approached him on the deck of the _Susan Constant_, Smith handed to them his sword without a word and went below smiling grimly. He had long since fathomed the weakness and the incompetence of these self-constituted leaders. He knew that the time would come when his services would be indispensable to them and he was content to abide it in patience. They should have realized that, if their suspicions were just, he had but to raise his voice and the vessels would be instantly in mutiny. But they had not sufficient intelligence to perceive that if John Smith was the dangerous character they assumed him to be their best course was to propitiate him rather than to arouse his enmity. Instead of being impressed by the self-confident manner in which he yielded to confinement in the hold they gained courage from the incident and actually thought that they might go to any extreme without resistance on his part. So, when the vessels made land at the West Indies, these masterful gentry erected a gallows for the purpose of hanging our hero, or, perhaps, of frightening him. Now we know that they could not have undertaken a more difficult task than that of attempting to strike fear into the heart of John Smith, and as to actual hanging, whilst he had a considerable sense of humor, it did not carry him so far as taking part in a performance of that sort. When they brought him on deck and solemnly informed him that the gallows awaited him, he laughed in their faces and told them that it was a shame to waste good timber, for he had not the remotest thought of using the contrivance. In fact, he took the matter with such careless assurance that they wisely concluded to abandon the project and sailing away, left their useless gallows standing. Steering for that portion of the mainland where the former ill-fated colonies had been planted, the vessels were soon out of their reckoning and beat about for several days without sight of land. They had been already four months upon a voyage that should have occupied no more than two and had made serious inroads into the stock of provisions which was calculated to furnish the store of the settlers. They began to grow fearful and discontented. Many wished to put about and sail homeward, and even Ratcliffe, the captain of the _Discovery_, favored such a course. Whilst they were debating the proposition, a violent storm arose and luckily drove them to their destination. On the twenty-sixth day of April, 1607, they entered the Bay of Chesapeake.