“Mr. Fielding,” cried Bol, throwing out his arms and addressing me in that posture, “vhat vhas it how he vhas mit der brig und mit Mynheer Tulp while she vhas all right mit _you?_ Mindt, I doan say dot if der captain had lif dot dere vhas no trouble. Vhat?” he shouted, in a voice of thunder: “a leedle footy sum of sixty tousand dollar for all us men vhen Tulp vhas to get der half of der half million and you yourself, Mr. Fielding, maybe vhas to take but a leedle less dan Captain Greaves herself. Vhas it right?” He thumped his bosom. “Vhas she a beesiness dot vhas good ash between man and man?” He thumped his bosom again. “Vhas not you a sailor? Vhas not der sailor gruelly used? Vhas she not right to stand up for herself when der shance comes? Mr. Fielding, in der sight of der crew, gif me your hand und shake mit me und ve vhas der happiest of families from dis hour.” “I’ll not give you my hand. I want time to think.” His face darkened. I continued: “If I refuse to navigate the brig to Amsterdam Island and on to Port Jackson, what then?” Wirtz, who was at the wheel, hearing this, called out in Dutch. Yan Bol gazed at him slowly, then leisurely brought his face to bear upon mine and eyed me fixedly. “Mr. Fielding,” he said, slowly, “I likes to shake you by der hand und it vhas a good ting to be a happy barty. But if you doan navigate us you vhas of no use, und we puts you into dot boat mit der two Spaniards und sends you away, hoping dot it shall be well mit us all.” * * * * * I remained in my berth during the greater part of that afternoon. I was nearly mad and afraid to trust myself on deck. The insult, let alone the significance, of Bol’s threat to send me adrift with the two Spaniards, was crushing, because it found me entirely helpless. Bligh, of the _Bounty_, had been so served; others who deserved far better usage at the hands of their crew than Bligh, of the _Bounty_, had been put into boats in mid-ocean and dispatched to their doom. In the next hour I might find myself adrift with the two Spaniards, the brig a white gleam on the horizon, the lady Aurora alone with the crew, the money as utterly lost to me as if it had gone to the bottom. So I remained in my berth and thought, and all the afternoon I sat thinking till the evening darkened upon the port-hole, till the fire had gone out of my blood, and the machinery of the brain worked calmly. Thrice, or perhaps four times, did Miss Aurora beat upon my cabin door and call my name. I heard her ask the lad Jimmy if I was ill, if I was mad, what had happened, why did the Señor Fielding hide himself? The half-witted boy knew not how to answer her. She knocked upon my door again. I told her that I was hard at work, and promised to join her presently.