Chapter Twelve

Chapter XII

Dawn the next day found Dameon steering his ship toward an island, hoping to give his men a rest from life on board ship. He had been getting reports of mutinous grumbling for days before this. As soon as they landed an hour later half the crew immediately jumped overboard and fled into the trees.
“Be warned!” Dameon called after them “Anyone who isn’t back aboard when we leave will be left to the mercy of the coconuts!”
“Oh really, you don’t expect them to respond to that, do you?” David asked “They were about to mutiny.”
“I know that.” Dameon replied “That’s why we’re leaving now. Sooner or later, every one of them will be tired of coconuts, each other, or both. Meanwhile, we sail away and leave them behind. Problem solved. Tell the men to cut the cable.”
As David set the men to work on the cable, Dameon strolled off and began chatting with John, who had just emerged from Dameon’s own cabin.
“You haven’t been stealing from my cabin, have you?” Dameon inquired of his son.
“It wasn’t me,” John replied “It was the crew. Every man who jumped overboard. I thought they were planning to attack you, so I followed them so as to be able rouse the loyal men to your aid. A few minutes later, we landed and they rushed out and overboard, apparently carrying nothing. But I ran in, and a quick check around showed that the mutineers have ransacked your cabin, taking all the maps, equipment, and the entire contents of the arms locker.”
Dameon stood stunned by this news for a moment, but then recovered, saying “No wonder they were all coming from that direction.” Whirling around, he bellowed “Belay that order! New orders, change your clothes, and get someone to repair the anchor cable! Move!”
An hour later, Dameon leaped overboard disguised as one of his own crew men. When he found the men, he saw that they had just started a fire. Stepping up, he exclaimed “You aren’t about to burn the Captain’s maps, are you?”
“Why shouldn’t we? The one holding the maps replied “We don’t need them, and this is the perfect revenge on that fool who calls himself our Captain.”
At that, Dameon steeped forward and fired. Stepping forward to take the maps from the dead man, he turned and announced “I am the Captain. If you men hand over the rest of my things, you’ll get off lightly, if not, I told you that you were at the mercy of the coconuts.”
“You forget, we have all the weapons.” The men replied, drawing theirs.
“Yes, but I have ripe coconuts.” Dameon quickly responded “And an attack from the rear. Touché.” At that moment, several of the the men at the back of the group began screeching in agony and hopping around. As they turned to run, they were met by a perfectly timed coconut broadside led by David.
“I must admit, it worked better than I thought it would.” David remarked to Gabriel as they searched the men afterwards.
“Oh look it’s the Captain’s compass; I bet he’ll appreciate this. And what’s this man doing with the Captain’s log book, Anyway?” Gabriel replied.