Dick was enjoying the scene very much, going in and out among the dancers, admiring their grace and wondering at their strangely cut clothes, when Captain Godfree beckoned him to a retired part of the portico. “I think we’d better get out of this, Sumner,” the captain whispered. “I have just found out that there’s a case of yellow fever in the house.” “There is!” Dick exclaimed. “Yes; and only two rooms from where they’re dancing, too. All those doors down the other end of the portico open into bedrooms, and the sick man is in the second room. He was taken down yesterday, but they’re keeping it quiet so as not to break up the ball. These natives are not much afraid of the fever, you know, but it won’t do for us; and the sooner we get out the better. The sick man is an American shipmaster with a brig lying in the harbor.” “An American!” Dick repeated; “and all this music and dancing about his ears! Perhaps you had better go, captain; but I shall stay and see whether my countryman is in need of help. Oh, yes; I couldn’t do anything else,” he went on in answer to the captain’s surprised look. “You would do the same thing for an Englishman; any decent man would. I am not afraid of the fever; I have seen plenty of it in Havana and Vera Cruz.” “By George, I’m glad the English and Americans are cousins!” the captain exclaimed. “That’s said like a man. But in this case it would be worse than useless for you to stay, for the man is well supplied with money, has good nurses and a good English doctor attending him; so you would only be in the way. Come along.” Dick would not go until he learned from the hotel people that his countryman was supplied with every possible comfort; and then he and the captain returned to the ship. It was after midnight when they reached her side, and they were surprised to hear a great commotion on deck. “On deck, there, Mr. Gran!” the captain shouted when they were within a few feet of the vessel. “Aye, aye, sir!” Mr. Gran replied; “I’m glad you’re back, sir. These lubbers have been drinking bay rum till they’re wild. They’re in a state of mutiny, sir.” [Illustration: HE SNATCHED A BELAYING PIN FROM ITS SOCKET AND SPRANG FORWARD.] “Are they?” the captain exclaimed. “I’ll sober ’em, the drunken beasts!” He sprang up the ladder with Dick close behind, and the moment he reached the deck he threw off his coat. “Call Mr. Turner and the quartermaster,” he ordered; and Mr. Gran turned to obey. The men, eight of them, were in a cluster forward, near the starboard rail, fighting furiously, struggling, swearing, striking, too drunk to know or care that the captain had returned.