Then he was hoisted and dragged to the mast, and lashed there, an example and a warning to all others who might be inclined to be "obstreperous," as the captain said.
All this time the schooner was making to get clear of the Channel, which they hoped to reach before dawn on the morrow.
The crew, already favorably impressed by Leicester's conduct and his uncomplaining capability, were much aggrieved at this treatment.
The Yankee skipper appeared to take no notice of the complaints for some time, but when the dissatisfaction arrived at that point when the men declared they would not work the vessel while Leicester was tied up the captain, with an oath, drew his revolver.
"Who says I mayn't do what I like on my own vessel?" he roared. "If there's one o' you as wants an inch o' lead let him stand out!"
One man, a weather-beaten little fellow whose face Leicester seemed to have remembered as having seen before he was carried on board, stepped forward and, with a savage sort of courage, stared the captain in the face.
"Wal, Stumpy," he said, "what have you got to say?"
"Why, this 'ere," said the courageous little fellow, "that it ain't the square thing to keep a man as does his duty and ain't shown no cheek skewered on the masthead."
"If you've all o' ye set your minds upon having this yer tarnation mighty gentleman a darncin' round agin, let him darnce."
Here the men set up a shout, and Stumpy leaped forward and commenced knocking Leicester's irons off.
With a malicious spite the Yankee set Leicester--almost exhausted as he was--and Stumpy, his advocate, to the hardest tasks.
In spite of all efforts to keep the vessel from going coastward the schooner gradually but surely drifted toward a line of reefs, and the strain was so great on the rudder that the Yankee issued an order for bracing it.
Of course Stumpy and Leicester were told off, and without a moment's hesitation they seized the necessary ropes and commenced the perilous task.
Leicester expected every moment that he and his comrade in danger would be blown or buffeted overboard, and so kept a keen lookout for Stumpy and grasped a spar, upon which he knelt, with the determination of an already drowning man.
The result showed that his fears were well grounded.