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The boatswain halted. “Mr. Samuel, we’d best not let him know the whole truth of it.”

“What?” exclaimed Samuel. “Would you shield such a villain? When he’s robbed some of us, it may be, of the very chance of life?”

“It’s not that I’d shield him,” said Cole, “but I’d be ashamed to let Captain Bligh know what a poor thing we’ve got amongst us.”

“He knows already,” Samuel replied. “Hasn’t the man been a dead weight to us all the way from Tofoa? He’s done nothing but lie and whine in the bottom of the boat all the voyage. We’ve him to thank, I’ll be bound, for the stolen pork!”

“I didn’t touch it, sir! I didn’t!”

“You did, you rogue! It must have been you! There’s none but yourself would have been such a cur as to steal from his shipmates!”

He was, in all truth, a wretched creature, the inestimable Lamb. I have little doubt that Samuel was right in surmising that he was the thief of the pork. But as that was gone, and the birds as well, I agreed with Cole that nothing was to be gained by disclosing Lamb’s gorge of raw bird flesh. Tinkler sided with us, and Samuel at length agreed to keep that point a secret.