"
"Let's go after 'em!"
"Shoot 'em down, boys! They deserve it for burning up the ship!"
Up the rocks came the hard-drunken sailors, accompanied by Lesher,
and with Dan Baxter in their rear.
"Back! back! All of you, stand back!" cried Captain Blossom. "Come
a step nearer at your peril. We are all armed and ready to fire!"
At these words the sailors halted for a moment.
"Say, cap'n, why did you set the ship afire?" asked an unsteady voice.
"We had nothing to do with that," answered Captain Blossom. "We were
all over on this island when the blaze started."
"It's a lie!" came in the voice of Lesher.
"Of course it's a lie," added Dan Baxter. "They did their best to
burn every one of us up.
"It is the truth," cried Dick. "Now stand back, or we shall fire on you."
"Come on!" yelled Lesher, and fired a pistol at those near the mouth
of the cave.
"If ever I get the chance to have you tried, every one of you shall
be hung for mutiny and murder!" cried Captain Blossom, and then fired
in return.
The bullet hit Dan Baxter in the arm, and he fell back with a shriek
of pain.
"I am killed! I am killed!" he moaned, and ran down toward the beach.
Then came a volley from the mutineers, followed by one from those in
the cave.
"Oh, what a close 'shave!" muttered Tom. A bullet had grazed his ear,
cutting away one of his curly locks.
Lesher was wounded in the shoulder, and in a moment more of the
mutineers ran off, feeling that they were at a disadvantage.
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