Pike take shelter behind the
steel jiggermast. Also, as the second mate manoeuvred to port on top
of Number Three hatch for his last shot, I know that I saw Mr. Pike
duck around the corner of the chart-house to starboard and get away
aft and below by way of the booby-hatch. And I did hear that last
futile shot, and the bullet also as it ricochetted from the corner of
the steel-walled chart-house.
As for myself, I did not move. I was too interested in seeing. It
may have been due to lack of presence of mind, or to lack of
habituation to an active part in scenes of quick action; but at any
rate I merely retained my position at the break of the poop and
looked on. I was the only person on the poop when the mutineers, led
by the second mate and the gangsters, rushed it. I saw them swarm up
the ladder, and it never entered my head to attempt to oppose them.
Which was just as well, for I would have been killed for my pains,
and I could never have stopped them.
I was alone on the poop, and the men were quite perplexed to find no
enemy in sight.
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