“Easy! easy!” said Walter, when his stalwart assailant seized him by the throat, and brandished his hatchet before his eyes.
“Who commands this craft?” demanded the sailor.
“I have the honor,” replied Walter, without the least tremor in his voice. “Look here, Mr. Revenue-man,” he added, addressing himself to Perk’s antagonist, “don’t choke that boy. He has no intention of resisting you, and neither have I. We know where you came from, and what you intend to do.”
“Well, you’re a cool hand!” said Walter’s captor, releasing his hold of the young captain’s throat, and lowering his hatchet. “You’re sensible, too. Will you give the vessel up to us without any fuss?”
“O, they can’t help you, for they’re captured already. There’s a half a dozen of our fellers down there guarding ’em. Now, look a here, cap’n: there’s no use of wasting words over this thing. We’re deserters from the United States revenue service, as you know, and we’re bound to get to Havana some way or other.”
“Well?” said Walter, when the sailor paused.
“Well, we want this vessel to take us there.”
“But there’s one difficulty in the way,” the sailor went on. “We don’t know what course to sail to get there. Do you know anything about navigation?”
“If I didn’t, I don’t think I should be out here in command of a yacht,” said Walter, with a smile. And if he had added that he could take a vessel around the world, he would have told nothing but the truth. He and all the rest of the Club had studied navigation at the Academy, and under Uncle Dick, who drilled them in the use of instruments, and they were quite accomplished navigators for boys of their age.
“Now, this is just the way the thing stands,” continued the sailor. “You’re too far from Bellville to give us up to the cutter, like you did them other fellers, and we ain’t likely to let you turn about and go there either. We’re going to Havana; and if you will take us there without any foolishness, we’ll be the peaceablest fellers you ever saw. We’ll obey orders, help manage the yacht, live off your grub, and behave ourselves like gentlemen; but if you try to get to windward of us in any way, we’ll pitch the last one of you overboard. Mebbe you don’t know it, but we are going to ship aboard a Cuban privateer. We can make more that way than we can in Uncle Sam’s service—prize-money, you know.”
