THE "GLOBE" MUTINY 131 



pered, '' If you make the least damn bit of noise, I'll send you to 

 hell." 



The boy had had no intimation of trouble. His trick at the 

 wheel was an old story. The very familiarity of his surround- 

 ings made the apparition the more startling. 



Much alarmed, he waited until Samuel had lighted a lamp and 

 had gone into the steerage; then, a second time, he sounded 

 the rattle. 



His brother returned instantly, in a murderous rage, and 

 no one else responded to the signal. In fear of death, young 

 George gave up the rattle. 



He then saw four men — Payne, Oliver, Humphries, and 

 Lilliston — come aft and join his brother, who started down into 

 the cabin. Samuel was armed with an ax, and Payne with a 

 boarding-knife — a keen two-edged blade about four feet long 

 and two or three inches wide, used for cutting the blubber as it 

 was hoisted into the ship. Lilliston, who afterward declared 

 that he had not believed they would actually carry out their 

 plans, started with them — out of mere bravado, by his own 

 account — ^but went only as far as the cabin gangway. When the 

 four actually entered the cabin, he faced about and ran past 

 young George and forward to the forecastle, where he climbed 

 into his bunk. 



As the four went below with their lanterns, George was again 

 left alone at the wheel. He saw them for a moment, black 

 against the lantern light; saw Lilliston burst out in a panic 

 and rush forward, with only the pounding of his feet to break 

 the stillness; saw the light play back and forth in the com- 

 panion way; then heard terrible sounds. 



The captain had slung a hammock in the cabin, and was sleep- 

 ing there because his own stateroom was uncomfortably warm. 

 Samuel Comstock, having stationed Payne to watch the mate, 

 stepped up to the hammock and deliberately split the head 

 of the sleeping captain with one blow of his ax. 



At the sound of the blow, Payne, with his boarding-knife, 

 blindly attacked William Beetle, the mate, who woke from a 

 sound sleep and cried wildly, "What — what — what — is this 



