To my surprise, not a man crossed over to the larboard, but with one accord all stepped briskly and resolutely to the starboard side.
"What's this I see?" shouted Captain Jeremy.
"Do you want to cruise single-handed? Are you afraid that, against my word, your shares will go down? Do I scent mutiny aboard the _Golden Hope_? Bestir yourselves, my hearties!"
"'Tain't neither, Cap'n," replied one of the men, Tom Cherry by name. He had been one of the Captain's comrades in the cave, and was a stanch, honest fellow. "We'll all go if you gives the word, but we don't want you to think as 'ow we wants to leave you."
"You won't be leaving me; it's the _Golden Hope_ you're leaving, to join a consort under my orders. I thank you all for your expression of loyalty, but as some of you must ship aboard the _Neptune_ we'll leave it to chance. Master Touchstone, do you draw the men into two ranks."
Thereupon the crew took up their position, fifty-one all told, for Captain 'Enery and the master gunner were, with Captain Miles and me on the poop.
"Down you go, Master Clifford, and pick out a man at random," said our Captain; and, descending the poop ladder, I walked between two rows of as fine a set of men as ever served afloat.
"Fall out, you," ordered Captain Jeremy, as I touched a smart lower-yard man on the shoulder.
"There you are, Captain 'Enery," he continued, when the counting out was completed; "a proper crew for you, and no favouritism. I trust they'll do you credit. Now, lads, there's no time to be lost, so dismiss and pack up your traps."
With this there was a wild skelter, as the men dived into the forepeak to gather together their personal property; and a quarter of an hour later the backbone of the _Neptune's_ crew rowed off to our consort.
An hour or more elapsed ere the sixty peasants were brought on board the _Golden Hope_, for Captain 'Enery, with considerable tact, had allowed them to settle amongst themselves who should stay and who were to go. Thus there was no separation of relations or friends--for, poor fellows, they had had enough of that when they left England--and each band of yokels had the satisfaction of finding themselves made up of practically the manhood of their respective villages.