"No," said the captain, who heard him from
below; "tell him to put his shirt on; that's the best thing for him;
and pull me ashore in the boat. Nobody is going to lay-up on board
this vessel." He then called to Mr. Russell to take those men and
two others in the boat, and pull him ashore. I went for one. The two
men could hardly bend their backs, and the captain called to them to
"give way," "give way " but finding they did their best, he let them
alone. The agent was in the stern sheets, but during the whole
pull- a league or more- not a word was spoken. We landed; the captain,
agent, and officer went up to the house, and left us with the boat. I,
and the man with me, staid near the boat, while John and Sam walked
slowly away, and sat down on the rocks. They talked some time
together, but at length separated, each sitting alone. I had some
fears of John. He was a foreigner, and violently tempered, and under
suffering; and he had his knife with him, and the captain was to
come down alone to the boat. But nothing happened; and we went quietly
on board. The captain was probably armed, and if either of them had
lifted a hand against him, they would have had nothing before them but
flight, and starvation in the woods of California, or capture by the
soldiers and Indian blood-hounds, whom the offer of twenty dollars
would have set upon them.
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