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A lieutenant had asked to see him.
"So you are Ethan Allen?" the English lieutenant asked.
"That is my name."
"Then, apart from the pleasure I have in seeing you here, I have butone greater joy, and that is that I am able to treat you like this."
The officer spat in Allen's face.
The Green Mountain hero's hands were manacled, but he raised them andbrought them down with such force on the man's face that he fellheadlong on the deck.
Instantly Allen was surrounded with bayonets.
He was considered dangerous, and had to be forced back into the prisoninclosure.
The vessel set sail, and every day the captain taunted the prisonerswith their captivity, and took every means to make them suffer.
Some days, when the weather was more than ordinarily oppressive, hewould order that no water should be given, and as the food consisted ofsalt pork and bread, or ship's biscuit, it can be well imagined howmuch they all suffered.
After the vessel had been out twenty days one of the prisoners crawledup to Allen and whispered into his ear:
"Can we live much longer like this?"
"I am afraid not."
"Then let us put an end to it."
"How?"
"Will you agree to join us?"
"I cannot answer that until I know what is proposed."
"If you do not want to join, you will not betray us?"
"What do you think of me? Have I ever been a sneak?"
"No, colonel, but the scheme is a desperate one."
"What is it?"
"To seize the ship and then take her into port as a captured vessel."
"How can it be done?"
"Jack--you know Jack, the one who brings us tobacco?"
"Yes; he is a kind-hearted Englishman."
"He isn't English, he is Irish. Now, he will file off these handcuffsand give me the file. By working at every opportunity we can all befree in a few days; then all we have to do is to force our way out andseize the skipper. We will throw him overboard, and kill all whooppose us; then the ship will be ours and we can sell it and divide theprize money."
"My good fellow, we cannot do it."
"Why?"
"If we seized the ship we should have to sink it, for no one wouldpurchase it. But I will not countenance murder."
"It is not murder, it is war."
