A Sailor in Spite of Himself (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIII. CONCLUSION. NEVER was there greater consternation exhibited by a lot of mutineers than was shown by the seven men on board the Boston when Captain Nellis set his foot upon the quarter-deck. He hadn't waited to receive any greeting at all from the men who had released him, but pushing them roughly aside sprang up the stairs that led to the place where he could breathe the air of freedom. But when he got to the deck he stopped. He gazed about him with an irresolute air, and then seeing Bob, who had worked his way around him to get an opportunity to look in his face, he stretched out his hands toward him; but before he could utter a sound he reeled and fell senseless to the deck. Bob jumped to his rescue at once, raised his head and placed it upon his knee, while the tears he could not repress coursed down his cheeks. "What's to be done now?" he asked, looking up in the second mate's face. "I don't know the first thing about navigation here," replied the officer. "Can you take the vessel out?" "No, I cannot," replied Bob. "I never was at sea before in my life." "Then we've got to wait for the captain; that's all there is about it. Catch hold of him, Ben, and we'll take him down and put him in his bunk." Only those who have engaged in mutiny on board a ship can tell what the feelings of those men were as they stood there on deck and saw the man on whom they had depended to navigate the vessel carried below. The captain knew that something had been going on, for he and his first officer were standing up in their boats looking at the ship. She hadn't yet slipped her anchor, but she was all ready to do it when Captain Nellis came up to take command. When the captain had been laid away in his bunk the second mate came on deck again and took his sta...