Aye, belikes they will--and winter will be upon us hard and heavy. The winters in this country are worse than any you have ever seen in England or Holland. PETER Indeed! JONES The snow lies so deep it would cover a man's head--the land is blotted out, and even the sea freezes-- PETER Then how could we get ashore? JONES I know not. PETER And once ashore, how could we find a fair place to build our homes? JONES 'Tis not for me to say. PETER Why can't we land right here, Captain? JONES Because your Elder, Master Carver, says fix the ship and go on. PETER If Elder Carver says that, then there be naught that we kin do. JONES You'd stay packed in the ship's cabin, facing sickness and death, rather than rise up like men and tell the Elder what you will and what you won't do, eh? PETER Elder Carver and the twelve masters have the voice; we have naught to do but to obey. JONES Can it be that forty English freemen can't vote down twelve masters? PETER Under our charter the freemen have no voice. JONES Under the charter, eh? PETER Aye, so there's naught to do but what the masters say. JONES Have you never heard of mutiny? PETER Mutiny? Nay, we be lawful men, bound together in the love of Jehovah; we'll not mutiny! We must abide by our charter. JONES The charter, aye. PETER So there's naught to do-- JONES Hold--have you thought on this--the charter binds you under the King's grant in Virginia Plantation-- PETER Aye. JONES And you are not in Virginia-- PETER Nay, not yet. JONES So you are not bound by the Virginia charter in these waters. PETER Forsooth, Captain, I'd not thought on that. JONES You have here all the rights of free-born Englishmen. And if you rise like men and demand that your Elders hearken to your voice, who shall gainsay you? PETER Aye--who--who, indeed? If we vote to land here, 'tis not mutiny. JONES Nay, 'tis but your right, if you want to land here. PETER We do--we do! Not a man in the company but would stay here if he had his way. JONES Then have your way--like Englishmen! Go to your cabin. Talk to the men of your company, tell them what I have told you. PETER Aye, Captain, I will! At once. [_going_] JONES Good! [_sound of door closing_] [_to himself_] Well, Elder Carver, we shall see whose voice is stronger--yours, or the voice of forty English freemen! ANNOUNCER Thus Captain Jones planted in the mind of one of the freemen of the Pilgrim company an idea which he was sure would bear fruit before many hours. He watched the company as first one man and then another fell in with Peter Brown. He felt the temper of the company changing, but he still did not feel that mutiny was likely against the strong religious authority of the Elders. And so to bring the matter to a head, he asked Carver to come to his cabin. As the door closes, the captain begins-- JONES I fear me, Master Carver, we are in a bad way. CARVER Indeed--why? JONES