Things had gone too far
for Goldsworthys graciously to condone the offence--and Clerk Gum paid in
his savings of years. This was the fact written by Mrs. Gum to her son,
which had called forth the line in the envelope.
Alas! those were the last tidings ever received from Willy Gum. Whilst
Mrs. Gum lived in a state of ecstacy, showing the letter to her
neighbours and making loving preparations for his reception, the time for
the arrival of the _Morning Star_ at Liverpool drew on, and passed, and
the ship did not arrive.
A time of anxious suspense to all who had relations on board--for it was
supposed she had foundered at sea--and tidings came to them. An awful
tale; a tale of mutiny and wrong and bloodshed. Some of the loose
characters on board the ship--and she was bringing home such--had risen
in disorder within a month of their sailing from Melbourne; had killed
the captain, the chief officer, and some of the passengers and crew.
The ringleader was a man named Gordon; who had incited the rest to the
crime, and killed the captain with his own hand. Obtaining command of the
ship, they put her about, and commenced a piratical raid. One vessel they
succeeded in disarming, despoiling, and then leaving her to her fate. But
the next vessel they attacked proved a more formidable enemy, and there
was a hand-to-hand struggle for the mastery, and for life or death.
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