Chapter Eighteen.

Chapter Eighteen.Mr Frewen and I were both too weak and faint from the terrible shock we had had, to do anything that day but lie back and rest, my place being chosen close to the hole I had bored, so that I could be ready to answer Mr Preddle’s questions, which were constantly coming, and to listen to his lamentations about his fish—about the trouble he had taken, the water which must be drying—till, as I lay back there with my ear close to a second hole which I had bored lower down, every now and then from pain, heat, and the consequent faintness, I kept on dropping into a curious half-dreamy state, in which I seemed to be watching Mr Preddle’s fish swimming about with their fat little mouths gasping at the surface of the water, and all looking as if they were so many hundreds of tiny Preddles asking me to get them out of prison.Oh, what a wretched time that was, and how I wished that I could go right off to sleep—a sleep without any dreams—and keep asleep till my side had left off aching. But it was no use to wish, for though Mr Frewen was sleeping, so sure as I nearly dropped off, Mr Preddle would put his lips to the hole I had made for my own torture, and whisper something.“Dale, I’ve been thinking that if Mr Frewen could seize the man who opens your door and attends upon you, and hold him while you ran out and opened mine, you and I could then go and open two more cabins, and so on, and then we could seize the ship.”“Yes,” I said heavily, and there was a pause. Then just as I was dropping off to sleep again—“Dale!”“Yes, sir.”“We ought to do it when it is dark. I’m quite strong, and not hurt a bit. Do you think Mr Frewen is well enough?”“Oh yes!” I said drowsily, though all the time I knew he was not, but I couldn’t help it.“Then I think we ought to try to-night. But what is your opinion of Mr John Denning?”“Haven’t any opinion of him,” I said, almost talking in my sleep.“Oh, but that’s not fair. He certainly is very irritable, but he might be useful, and I think he is brave. A man who is in bad health is frequently irritable, and if we have to fight, as I suppose we very likely shall have to, his irritability would be of great advantage to us, because it would be vented upon our enemies.”That’s as far as I can remember what he said, for nature would bear no more, and I was fast asleep with a murmuring sound close to my ear shaping my dreams, which lasted till there was a rattling sound at the door, which as I started up was flung open, and two men brought in what was intended for our supper and dinner together.The supply was very coarse, and only consisted of cold salt beef, bread, and water, but if it had been a repast of the most delicious nature, it would not have tempted Mr Frewen or me. The fresh water was all we cared for, and a sip of this from time to time was most refreshing.But as soon as the men had left our cabin and closed the door, we heard them go into the next, and as we sat listening, we could hear almost every word that was said, for Mr Preddle questioned the men sharply, but obtained no answer, the door being roughly closed just in the middle of one of his speeches. Then as we sat listening we could hear the men go from cabin to cabin down one side of the saloon and back along the other.After this we began to talk in a whisper about our future prospects, and our plans were soon made—to wit, that as soon as Mr Frewen felt himself strong enough to act, an attempt should be made to evade the vigilance of the men on guard, and communicate with the captain or Mr Brymer, and then try to make some plan.“There don’t seem to be much chance,” I said, rather dolefully, for I was in a good deal of pain.“You never know what is going to happen, my lad,” said Mr Frewen. “As for me, I feel quite cheerful about our prospects. These men never can get on without quarrelling, and if they are divided, then is our chance.”“But suppose they do not quarrel, and are not divided?” I said.“Don’t suppose impossibilities, Dale. I’ve been at sea long enough to understand a little about sailors. This man Jarette has won their ear for the time, but he will soon begin to behave tyrannically to them, and then they will be as ready to rebel against him as they were against Captain Berriman. We have to wait for that moment, and take advantage of it if we can.”But three days glided on without our having a chance of knowing what was going on in the other cabins. We knew that we were sailing away south, and that the men seemed to be enjoying themselves, for there was a good deal of singing and shouting—strong indications of drinking going on. Mr Frewen was far better, and my pains had passed into an unpleasant stiffness; otherwise, I was all right.As for Mr Preddle, he would sit against the bulk-head and bemoan his fate as long as he could get a listener, and half his discourse would be about his fish, the other about the unfortunate passengers.I had cut a way through into his cabin by boring a great many holes, and then joining them with my knife, so that I could pass it through for him to try if he could communicate with the cabin further on. But that proved to be empty, and we could do nothing that way.So we sat through the hot day talking about the mad act on the part of the men, and watched the horizon in the hope of seeing a ship to which we could signal, but nothing came in sight.The fourth night had arrived, and now Mr Frewen had made up his mind that our plan ought to be to work at a board in the bulk-head till we could get enough loose to draw a piece out; and then, after getting into Mr Preddle’s cabin, work a way through into the next, the empty one, which was pretty sure to be open.Mr Preddle was almost speechless with excitement when the plan was broached to him, and he declared it to be too good for there to be any failure.“Why, we have only to loosen a board or two on my side, go through, watch our opportunity, and then go from cabin to cabin and let out our friends; then wait till the mutineers are all quiet below, and fasten the hatches tight down upon them. Alison Dale, my dear boy, we shall re-take the ship, save the ladies, and I shall, after all, get across with the greater part of my consignment of salmon and trout.”He had his plump round face to the opening looking in at us as he said all this, and I could see that his eyes were sparkling with pleasure at the thought of the great success that was coming.“It is very easy in theory, Preddle,” said Mr Frewen, “but I don’t know that it is going to turn out so satisfactory in practice.”“Oh, my dear Frewen, don’t throw cold water on the plan, pray,” he cried.“Not a drop,” said Mr Frewen.“And you will try?”“Oh yes; anything that promises success in any shape. We cannot sit still. We must master them.”“But are you strong enough to try?”“I’ll make myself strong enough,” said Mr Frewen, quietly.“Then which board shall we try to loosen first?”“Hist! some one coming,” I said quickly, and I moved a couple of bottles belonging to Mr Frewen’s store across the little opening, and took down another bottle to remove the stopper and begin sniffing at it as there was a sudden rattling at the door, which was thrown open, and Jarette entered. He left a bodyguard of five or six well-armed men outside, among whom I saw Bob Hampton, and I felt so enraged against him that I fixed him with my eye, but he seemed in no wise abashed, looking boldly back at me, and giving me quite a friendly nod.“Treacherous brute!” I muttered, and turned away to find Jarette looking at me searchingly.“Not dead yet then?” he said, with a half-laugh. Then to Mr Frewen—“Well, doctor, you’ve patched yourself up, I see. What do you say to come under my flag?”“Prison flag!” said Mr Frewen, contemptuously.“Oh no, my good friend; in my little kingdom I am going to found. What do you say to a lovely spice island, all sunshine and flowers, where I can start a new civilisation? I offer you a fine position there as the only doctor. What do you say?”“No, of course,” replied Mr Frewen, contemptuously.“Ah, you’ll think better of it. I’ve started the idea too suddenly for you now you’re sore; but you’ll come round, and the sooner you do the more comfortable you’ll be. It must come to that. You’ll have no other chance.”“We shall see,” said Mr Frewen, coldly.Jarette looked at him sharply, and then all about the narrow cabin before fixing his eyes again upon my fellow-prisoner.“Look here,” he said, in a sharp, fierce way. “You’re thinking of escaping—listen to this, boy,” he added, turning sharply to me, “it will do for you too. Now don’t think any more about such abêtise, doctor,” he continued, “for it is of no use. There is no escape for you. If you tried to break out I have men on the watch whose orders are to shoot down any one who tries to get away, and that shooting down means pitching overboard afterwards. It would save me a great deal of trouble, but I don’t want any more fighting and killing: I want peace. There, you can think it over. You had better be friends, for it would hurt my feelings to have to set you afloat in an open boat with those brute bullies, Berriman and Brymer. Think it over, man. Your friend, Mr Preddle, is sure to join me, for I can find him a pond or a river in which to keep his fish.”He backed out of the cabin, and the door was closed, while as we listened we heard the party move on to Mr Preddle’s cabin.I could not resist the temptation of listening, and as I was standing close by the partition, I took a step nearer to the opening I had made, and softly drew aside the bottle I had placed before it.Mr Frewen’s lips moved, and I took it that he said “Be careful,” so I nodded to him as much as to say “I will,” and listened.I could not see through, for Mr Preddle had done as I had—drawn something before his side of the opening, which was so small and in such a dark part of the cabin, that unless searched for it was not likely to be seen.“Well, sir,” cried Jarette, “when are you coming on deck again?”“Coming on deck?” said Mr Preddle, wonderingly.“Yes; those fish of yours want seeing to; I had to lift out half-a-dozen this morning with that string ladle of yours.”“The little net?” cried Mr Preddle, eagerly. “That was very good of you. How do they all seem?”“As if they wanted their master to come and feed them. They all swam up to the top and put their mouths out of the water; didn’t they, Hampton?”“Ay, ay, that’s so,” growled Bob, “and they all called out, ‘Wittles, wittles,’ in fish, on’y they’ve got such little voices through being so much in the damp that you couldn’t hear ’em.”The men laughed, and Mr Preddle joined in, but in a feeble forced way as he said weakly—“No, no, that was for fresh air. They’ll all be dead soon, I’m afraid.”“Then why don’t you come and attend to ’em?” said Jarette.“May I, Mr Jarette?” cried Mr Preddle, excitedly.“To be sure you may, sir. You’ve only got to satisfy me that you’ve thrown over these people here, whom I have been obliged to shut up for violence. Cast in your lot with us, and there you are, quite free; and I’ll—come, I’ll make you naturalist to my expedition, and one of the chief men of my island.”“Naturalist to your expedition?” faltered Mr Preddle, wondering at the language used by a man whom he had heretofore looked upon as a common sailor, perfectly uneducated, and ready for any amount of violence and rapine,—“chief man in your island!”“To be sure.”“But have you got an island?”“Waiting for me to go and take it, sir; and there you can study nature at home,—just the place for gentlemen like you.”“Ah, yes, that it is,” said Mr Preddle.“You’ll join us then?”“The weak limp wretch,” I heard Mr Frewen whisper.“No, sir, you said that I was a gentleman. I am, and gentlemen cannot do such things as that.”“Not take up a delightful life yonder?”“No; the cost is too great. I should have to be false to my class, and to my companions in misfortune here.”“Bah!—they are not so squeamish. They come, all of them, and are glad. You will join us?”“No, sir, no.”“But your fish—dying!”“Poor things! It is a disappointment, sir; but I cannot do as you wish me to, even to save them.”“You will not?”“No, sir, no.”“Idiot!” cried Jarette, sharply, and directly after the door was banged and fastened.“My fish—my fish—my poor little fish!” muttered Mr Preddle; “but I couldn’t, even to save them.”Then there was silence, and I softly recovered the little hole and looked round at Mr Frewen, who nodded and smiled.“Yes,” he whispered, “it is quite true: he is a gentleman, poor fellow, in spite of all.”Then we listened again, and heard door after door opened, as Jarette went round to see his prisoners; and principally, I fancy, to make sure, as he used his eyes sharply, that no one was likely to escape.Door after door was opened, and then we heard fierce angry voices, one of which I was sure was Captain Berriman’s. We could not hear what was said, but his voice sounded threatening, and Mr Frewen whispered—“Thank heaven! I was afraid the poor captain had been murdered.”Hardly had the words passed his lips before we heard a sharp report, a piercing shriek, and a heavy fall.Then for a few moments there was silence, but a quick muttering of voices followed, and then a door was banged.A few moments later as I stood there panting, and with the perspiration standing out upon my forehead, another door seemed to have been opened, and I heard a quick angry voice speaking loudly and upbraidingly.“Mr Denning!” I said excitedly, as I turned to my companion, whose face looked terrible in its rage and despair.“Whose voice was that, Dale?” he cried wildly.“Mr Denning’s, I’m sure.”“No, no, the lady’s cry.”“I—I—don’t know,” I stammered.“You do—you do!” he cried wildly, as he caught me by the breast; “speak out.”“I—I half fancied it was Miss Denning shrieked out,” I faltered.“Yes,” he groaned. “Yes, and I am shut up like this. Is there no way of escape?”And all this while the angry muttering and talking went on, Mr Denning evidently bitterly upbraiding Jarette, and the latter mockingly defiant, and uttering what sounded like contemptuous retorts. Then a door was banged again loudly, and we stood listening, Mr Frewen with his forehead resting against the panel and his hands clenched, while his face was all drawn into puckers and wrinkles as if he was suffering the most intense agony.And as we listened, I, horror-stricken, and in the full belief that poor Miss Denning had been shot, perhaps in trying to save her brother, a couple more of the cabin-doors were opened and closed; then there was a good deal of talking and the giving of orders. At last, when we felt that Jarette and his men were going forward once again to their quarters in the forecastle, leaving us in horrible suspense, a heavy step approached our door, which was opened, and Hampton appeared.“Who was that shot?” cried Mr Frewen, rushing at the man and seizing him by the breast.“Easy, sir; easy it is. You’d best ask the skipper.”“I say, who was that shot just now?”“And I says, ask the skipper, sir. It ain’t my business. My business is to bring you out. You’re wanted, and you’re to bring your tools.”“Wanted? To attend the injured person?”“I suppose so,” replied Hampton, with brutal callousness; and just as Jarette approached, “Here’s the captain, ask him.”Mr Frewen did not ask, but darted to one of the little drawers with which his cabin was fitted, took out a case and a packet of surgical necessaries packed all ready for emergencies, and turned back to the door.“Here, where are you going, youngster?” cried Hampton, who was looking in with a peculiar expression upon his countenance.“With Mr Frewen,” I said stoutly.“No, you’re not. Go back.”“But he’ll want me to help him!” I cried excitedly. “I must go.”“Yes; come with me, my lad!” cried Mr Frewen, and as I pressed forward, Hampton made no further objections to my presence, though before at a look from his leader he had barred the way with his sturdy arms.The next moment we were standing in the torn and blackened saloon, with Mr Frewen looking round wildly from door to door, seeking the one through which he was to go.

Mr Frewen and I were both too weak and faint from the terrible shock we had had, to do anything that day but lie back and rest, my place being chosen close to the hole I had bored, so that I could be ready to answer Mr Preddle’s questions, which were constantly coming, and to listen to his lamentations about his fish—about the trouble he had taken, the water which must be drying—till, as I lay back there with my ear close to a second hole which I had bored lower down, every now and then from pain, heat, and the consequent faintness, I kept on dropping into a curious half-dreamy state, in which I seemed to be watching Mr Preddle’s fish swimming about with their fat little mouths gasping at the surface of the water, and all looking as if they were so many hundreds of tiny Preddles asking me to get them out of prison.

Oh, what a wretched time that was, and how I wished that I could go right off to sleep—a sleep without any dreams—and keep asleep till my side had left off aching. But it was no use to wish, for though Mr Frewen was sleeping, so sure as I nearly dropped off, Mr Preddle would put his lips to the hole I had made for my own torture, and whisper something.

“Dale, I’ve been thinking that if Mr Frewen could seize the man who opens your door and attends upon you, and hold him while you ran out and opened mine, you and I could then go and open two more cabins, and so on, and then we could seize the ship.”

“Yes,” I said heavily, and there was a pause. Then just as I was dropping off to sleep again—“Dale!”

“Yes, sir.”

“We ought to do it when it is dark. I’m quite strong, and not hurt a bit. Do you think Mr Frewen is well enough?”

“Oh yes!” I said drowsily, though all the time I knew he was not, but I couldn’t help it.

“Then I think we ought to try to-night. But what is your opinion of Mr John Denning?”

“Haven’t any opinion of him,” I said, almost talking in my sleep.

“Oh, but that’s not fair. He certainly is very irritable, but he might be useful, and I think he is brave. A man who is in bad health is frequently irritable, and if we have to fight, as I suppose we very likely shall have to, his irritability would be of great advantage to us, because it would be vented upon our enemies.”

That’s as far as I can remember what he said, for nature would bear no more, and I was fast asleep with a murmuring sound close to my ear shaping my dreams, which lasted till there was a rattling sound at the door, which as I started up was flung open, and two men brought in what was intended for our supper and dinner together.

The supply was very coarse, and only consisted of cold salt beef, bread, and water, but if it had been a repast of the most delicious nature, it would not have tempted Mr Frewen or me. The fresh water was all we cared for, and a sip of this from time to time was most refreshing.

But as soon as the men had left our cabin and closed the door, we heard them go into the next, and as we sat listening, we could hear almost every word that was said, for Mr Preddle questioned the men sharply, but obtained no answer, the door being roughly closed just in the middle of one of his speeches. Then as we sat listening we could hear the men go from cabin to cabin down one side of the saloon and back along the other.

After this we began to talk in a whisper about our future prospects, and our plans were soon made—to wit, that as soon as Mr Frewen felt himself strong enough to act, an attempt should be made to evade the vigilance of the men on guard, and communicate with the captain or Mr Brymer, and then try to make some plan.

“There don’t seem to be much chance,” I said, rather dolefully, for I was in a good deal of pain.

“You never know what is going to happen, my lad,” said Mr Frewen. “As for me, I feel quite cheerful about our prospects. These men never can get on without quarrelling, and if they are divided, then is our chance.”

“But suppose they do not quarrel, and are not divided?” I said.

“Don’t suppose impossibilities, Dale. I’ve been at sea long enough to understand a little about sailors. This man Jarette has won their ear for the time, but he will soon begin to behave tyrannically to them, and then they will be as ready to rebel against him as they were against Captain Berriman. We have to wait for that moment, and take advantage of it if we can.”

But three days glided on without our having a chance of knowing what was going on in the other cabins. We knew that we were sailing away south, and that the men seemed to be enjoying themselves, for there was a good deal of singing and shouting—strong indications of drinking going on. Mr Frewen was far better, and my pains had passed into an unpleasant stiffness; otherwise, I was all right.

As for Mr Preddle, he would sit against the bulk-head and bemoan his fate as long as he could get a listener, and half his discourse would be about his fish, the other about the unfortunate passengers.

I had cut a way through into his cabin by boring a great many holes, and then joining them with my knife, so that I could pass it through for him to try if he could communicate with the cabin further on. But that proved to be empty, and we could do nothing that way.

So we sat through the hot day talking about the mad act on the part of the men, and watched the horizon in the hope of seeing a ship to which we could signal, but nothing came in sight.

The fourth night had arrived, and now Mr Frewen had made up his mind that our plan ought to be to work at a board in the bulk-head till we could get enough loose to draw a piece out; and then, after getting into Mr Preddle’s cabin, work a way through into the next, the empty one, which was pretty sure to be open.

Mr Preddle was almost speechless with excitement when the plan was broached to him, and he declared it to be too good for there to be any failure.

“Why, we have only to loosen a board or two on my side, go through, watch our opportunity, and then go from cabin to cabin and let out our friends; then wait till the mutineers are all quiet below, and fasten the hatches tight down upon them. Alison Dale, my dear boy, we shall re-take the ship, save the ladies, and I shall, after all, get across with the greater part of my consignment of salmon and trout.”

He had his plump round face to the opening looking in at us as he said all this, and I could see that his eyes were sparkling with pleasure at the thought of the great success that was coming.

“It is very easy in theory, Preddle,” said Mr Frewen, “but I don’t know that it is going to turn out so satisfactory in practice.”

“Oh, my dear Frewen, don’t throw cold water on the plan, pray,” he cried.

“Not a drop,” said Mr Frewen.

“And you will try?”

“Oh yes; anything that promises success in any shape. We cannot sit still. We must master them.”

“But are you strong enough to try?”

“I’ll make myself strong enough,” said Mr Frewen, quietly.

“Then which board shall we try to loosen first?”

“Hist! some one coming,” I said quickly, and I moved a couple of bottles belonging to Mr Frewen’s store across the little opening, and took down another bottle to remove the stopper and begin sniffing at it as there was a sudden rattling at the door, which was thrown open, and Jarette entered. He left a bodyguard of five or six well-armed men outside, among whom I saw Bob Hampton, and I felt so enraged against him that I fixed him with my eye, but he seemed in no wise abashed, looking boldly back at me, and giving me quite a friendly nod.

“Treacherous brute!” I muttered, and turned away to find Jarette looking at me searchingly.

“Not dead yet then?” he said, with a half-laugh. Then to Mr Frewen—

“Well, doctor, you’ve patched yourself up, I see. What do you say to come under my flag?”

“Prison flag!” said Mr Frewen, contemptuously.

“Oh no, my good friend; in my little kingdom I am going to found. What do you say to a lovely spice island, all sunshine and flowers, where I can start a new civilisation? I offer you a fine position there as the only doctor. What do you say?”

“No, of course,” replied Mr Frewen, contemptuously.

“Ah, you’ll think better of it. I’ve started the idea too suddenly for you now you’re sore; but you’ll come round, and the sooner you do the more comfortable you’ll be. It must come to that. You’ll have no other chance.”

“We shall see,” said Mr Frewen, coldly.

Jarette looked at him sharply, and then all about the narrow cabin before fixing his eyes again upon my fellow-prisoner.

“Look here,” he said, in a sharp, fierce way. “You’re thinking of escaping—listen to this, boy,” he added, turning sharply to me, “it will do for you too. Now don’t think any more about such abêtise, doctor,” he continued, “for it is of no use. There is no escape for you. If you tried to break out I have men on the watch whose orders are to shoot down any one who tries to get away, and that shooting down means pitching overboard afterwards. It would save me a great deal of trouble, but I don’t want any more fighting and killing: I want peace. There, you can think it over. You had better be friends, for it would hurt my feelings to have to set you afloat in an open boat with those brute bullies, Berriman and Brymer. Think it over, man. Your friend, Mr Preddle, is sure to join me, for I can find him a pond or a river in which to keep his fish.”

He backed out of the cabin, and the door was closed, while as we listened we heard the party move on to Mr Preddle’s cabin.

I could not resist the temptation of listening, and as I was standing close by the partition, I took a step nearer to the opening I had made, and softly drew aside the bottle I had placed before it.

Mr Frewen’s lips moved, and I took it that he said “Be careful,” so I nodded to him as much as to say “I will,” and listened.

I could not see through, for Mr Preddle had done as I had—drawn something before his side of the opening, which was so small and in such a dark part of the cabin, that unless searched for it was not likely to be seen.

“Well, sir,” cried Jarette, “when are you coming on deck again?”

“Coming on deck?” said Mr Preddle, wonderingly.

“Yes; those fish of yours want seeing to; I had to lift out half-a-dozen this morning with that string ladle of yours.”

“The little net?” cried Mr Preddle, eagerly. “That was very good of you. How do they all seem?”

“As if they wanted their master to come and feed them. They all swam up to the top and put their mouths out of the water; didn’t they, Hampton?”

“Ay, ay, that’s so,” growled Bob, “and they all called out, ‘Wittles, wittles,’ in fish, on’y they’ve got such little voices through being so much in the damp that you couldn’t hear ’em.”

The men laughed, and Mr Preddle joined in, but in a feeble forced way as he said weakly—

“No, no, that was for fresh air. They’ll all be dead soon, I’m afraid.”

“Then why don’t you come and attend to ’em?” said Jarette.

“May I, Mr Jarette?” cried Mr Preddle, excitedly.

“To be sure you may, sir. You’ve only got to satisfy me that you’ve thrown over these people here, whom I have been obliged to shut up for violence. Cast in your lot with us, and there you are, quite free; and I’ll—come, I’ll make you naturalist to my expedition, and one of the chief men of my island.”

“Naturalist to your expedition?” faltered Mr Preddle, wondering at the language used by a man whom he had heretofore looked upon as a common sailor, perfectly uneducated, and ready for any amount of violence and rapine,—“chief man in your island!”

“To be sure.”

“But have you got an island?”

“Waiting for me to go and take it, sir; and there you can study nature at home,—just the place for gentlemen like you.”

“Ah, yes, that it is,” said Mr Preddle.

“You’ll join us then?”

“The weak limp wretch,” I heard Mr Frewen whisper.

“No, sir, you said that I was a gentleman. I am, and gentlemen cannot do such things as that.”

“Not take up a delightful life yonder?”

“No; the cost is too great. I should have to be false to my class, and to my companions in misfortune here.”

“Bah!—they are not so squeamish. They come, all of them, and are glad. You will join us?”

“No, sir, no.”

“But your fish—dying!”

“Poor things! It is a disappointment, sir; but I cannot do as you wish me to, even to save them.”

“You will not?”

“No, sir, no.”

“Idiot!” cried Jarette, sharply, and directly after the door was banged and fastened.

“My fish—my fish—my poor little fish!” muttered Mr Preddle; “but I couldn’t, even to save them.”

Then there was silence, and I softly recovered the little hole and looked round at Mr Frewen, who nodded and smiled.

“Yes,” he whispered, “it is quite true: he is a gentleman, poor fellow, in spite of all.”

Then we listened again, and heard door after door opened, as Jarette went round to see his prisoners; and principally, I fancy, to make sure, as he used his eyes sharply, that no one was likely to escape.

Door after door was opened, and then we heard fierce angry voices, one of which I was sure was Captain Berriman’s. We could not hear what was said, but his voice sounded threatening, and Mr Frewen whispered—

“Thank heaven! I was afraid the poor captain had been murdered.”

Hardly had the words passed his lips before we heard a sharp report, a piercing shriek, and a heavy fall.

Then for a few moments there was silence, but a quick muttering of voices followed, and then a door was banged.

A few moments later as I stood there panting, and with the perspiration standing out upon my forehead, another door seemed to have been opened, and I heard a quick angry voice speaking loudly and upbraidingly.

“Mr Denning!” I said excitedly, as I turned to my companion, whose face looked terrible in its rage and despair.

“Whose voice was that, Dale?” he cried wildly.

“Mr Denning’s, I’m sure.”

“No, no, the lady’s cry.”

“I—I—don’t know,” I stammered.

“You do—you do!” he cried wildly, as he caught me by the breast; “speak out.”

“I—I half fancied it was Miss Denning shrieked out,” I faltered.

“Yes,” he groaned. “Yes, and I am shut up like this. Is there no way of escape?”

And all this while the angry muttering and talking went on, Mr Denning evidently bitterly upbraiding Jarette, and the latter mockingly defiant, and uttering what sounded like contemptuous retorts. Then a door was banged again loudly, and we stood listening, Mr Frewen with his forehead resting against the panel and his hands clenched, while his face was all drawn into puckers and wrinkles as if he was suffering the most intense agony.

And as we listened, I, horror-stricken, and in the full belief that poor Miss Denning had been shot, perhaps in trying to save her brother, a couple more of the cabin-doors were opened and closed; then there was a good deal of talking and the giving of orders. At last, when we felt that Jarette and his men were going forward once again to their quarters in the forecastle, leaving us in horrible suspense, a heavy step approached our door, which was opened, and Hampton appeared.

“Who was that shot?” cried Mr Frewen, rushing at the man and seizing him by the breast.

“Easy, sir; easy it is. You’d best ask the skipper.”

“I say, who was that shot just now?”

“And I says, ask the skipper, sir. It ain’t my business. My business is to bring you out. You’re wanted, and you’re to bring your tools.”

“Wanted? To attend the injured person?”

“I suppose so,” replied Hampton, with brutal callousness; and just as Jarette approached, “Here’s the captain, ask him.”

Mr Frewen did not ask, but darted to one of the little drawers with which his cabin was fitted, took out a case and a packet of surgical necessaries packed all ready for emergencies, and turned back to the door.

“Here, where are you going, youngster?” cried Hampton, who was looking in with a peculiar expression upon his countenance.

“With Mr Frewen,” I said stoutly.

“No, you’re not. Go back.”

“But he’ll want me to help him!” I cried excitedly. “I must go.”

“Yes; come with me, my lad!” cried Mr Frewen, and as I pressed forward, Hampton made no further objections to my presence, though before at a look from his leader he had barred the way with his sturdy arms.

The next moment we were standing in the torn and blackened saloon, with Mr Frewen looking round wildly from door to door, seeking the one through which he was to go.

Chapter Nineteen.“Here, this way,” said Jarette, fiercely, “and now you’ll see that I’m not a man to be played with. I’m captain here now, and it’s obey me or—”He snatched a pistol from his breast and held it menacingly toward Frewen, who flashed out at him—“Put that thing away, madman, and show me my patient. Which cabin is it?”“That one,” said Jarette, surlily. Then showing his teeth, he said in a peculiar tone of voice—“They say it’s kill or cure with your set; let it be cure this time, or perhaps it may be kill afterwards. Come on. Go in there.”He signed to a man acting as sentry by one of the doors well aft, and the man drew back while Frewen brushed by the scoundrel who held it open, and entered quickly, I following ready to do everything I could to help.I entered that cabin fully expecting to see Miss Denning lying bleeding on the floor, and I am sure that this was Mr Frewen’s impression; but to the surprise of both it was a totally different person, for there lay the captain in one corner, his head slightly raised, staring at us wildly as he held one hand pressed to his shoulder, and his eyes were so fixed that for the moment I was ready to think that he was passing away. But a faint smile came upon his face as he looked up at the doctor, and then he smiled at me.I darted a look full of horror and sympathy at him, and then closed the door, while as I turned I saw that the woodwork side of the cabin was marked by a bullet, for so I took it to be, which had splintered the board all round a good-sized hole.Mr Frewen went down on one knee by the captain, and took the hand which rested on his shoulder, pressed it, and then began to examine the injury.“Come and help me, Dale,” he said; “we must get him in a different position.”“Perhaps—I can help,” said the captain faintly. “The scoundrel shot me.”“Don’t try to talk,” said Mr Frewen, quickly. “Wait till I have bandaged the wound.”But as he spoke I noticed how he watched Captain Berriman, and seemed to take special heed of him as he whispered the above words evidently with pain.“Is it very bad, doctor?” he whispered now after Mr Frewen had been busy about his breast, and shoulder for a few minutes. “You can tell me, I can bear it.”“Bad enough, but not so bad as it might have been if it had gone an inch lower. But keep quiet, talking will only distress you, and tend to make you feverish. There,” he said at last, “there will be no more bleeding, and that was the only danger to apprehend.”By this time the captain was lying in an easy position, carefully bandaged and apparently suffering less.“He came in—”“Hush! don’t tell me; I know—as he did to us with inviting propositions. We heard your angry words, and the coward shot at you. But that shriek, surely it was Miss Denning’s?”“Yes,” whispered the captain. “The bullet crashed through there afterwards and struck Mr Denning. Not hurt, but his sister shrieked on hearing the shot and seeing him fall.”“Then they are in there?”The captain nodded.“And can hear our words?”There was another movement of the head.“Then let them hear that we are trying hard to put an end to this miserable state of affairs. Mr Denning should be ready to help us if called upon.”There was a gentle tapping on the partition at this, and I was on my way to the bulk-head to reply, when the cabin-door was opened and Jarette came inside.“Come, doctor, you must be done if you can find all that time for talking. Can you save him?”“I am trying, sir, if only to be prepared to have a witness against you when the time comes for your punishment.”“Oh yes, of course, doctor, we know all about that. This way, sir. Now, boy. Come!”“Good-bye, Captain Berriman,” I said, as I leaned over my poor officer and pressed his hand. Then in a whisper—“Cheer up! Perhaps we shall re-take the ship after all.”Then I followed the doctor, and a minute later we were once more under lock and key, while as I crossed the saloon I saw that a couple of men were pacing up and down, pistol in hand.I made a remark about this, and then I spoke about the way in which the powder had driven in all the end of the saloon.“I suppose Jarette must have used about all there is now.”Mr Frewen shook his head.“Didn’t you know?” he said. “There is a large quantity on board. It is being taken—across for blasting purposes in New Zealand. Jarette, I suppose, helped with the lading, and knew where it was stowed. That accounts for its being brought out so soon.”“Pity we can’t give them a dose of it,” I said, “so as to frighten them into better order. Just fancy, Mr Frewen, dropping a bagful into the forecastle with a fuse attached and lit; how they would run for the hatch, and before they could reach it—bang!”“Yes, with that part of the deck blown up and a dozen or so of wretched mutilated creatures lying about shrieking for help. Well, Dale, I dare say there is one of the bags somewhere about the cabins, but I don’t think you could use it.”“Well, now you talk like that, I don’t think I should like to,” I said.“I am sure you would not, boy. You and I could not fight that way. We must have a better way than that.”We lay there trying to think out some plan for the rest of that day, sometimes talking to ourselves, sometimes with Mr Preddle joining in; but for the most part he could talk about nothing else but his own troubles, and about his fish, which he was sure were dying off rapidly, for no one, he said, could attend to them like he would himself.“Unless it was you, Dale,” he whispered apologetically. “You certainly did seem to understand them almost as well as I did myself. Ah, I’d give almost anything to be out there attending to the poor little things, but I could not go at the cost that was proposed.”He sighed very deeply, drew back, and the little hole was darkened directly after, for Mr Preddle had lain down to meditate upon the sufferings of his fish, and when I peeped through at him a few minutes later he was still meditating with his eyes shut and his mouth open, while a peculiar sound came at regular intervals from between his lips.Mr Frewen looked at me inquiringly as I turned round.“Sound asleep,” I whispered.“Poor Mr Preddle,” said Mr Frewen, “he is a very good amiable fellow, but I think that you and I must make our plans, Dale, and call upon him to help when all is ready.”I nodded, for I thought so too, and after listening for a few moments at the door, we came to the conclusion that there was nothing to mind about the sentries, so we proceeded to make our examination of our prison in a more determined way.Several times my fingers had played about the knife I had in my pocket, and I had longed to bore holes in the cabin-door so as to watch the sentries; but of course I was checked by the knowledge that by making a hole through which I could watch them I was providing one by which they could watch us.The cabins on either side of the saloon were only so many portions of the ship boarded off, and provided with doors, so that a couple of carpenters would have had little difficulty in clearing away the partition and making one long opening, but we had no tools, and the slightest noise would have drawn attention to our acts; and these ideas would, we knew, govern our actions in all we did.Our idea was of course to get a board out between the doctor’s cabin and Mr Preddle’s, and if possible one at the darkest portion of the place close up to the ship’s side; but examine as we would, there did not appear to be one that it would be possible to move, try how we would.“It seems to be a very hopeless case, Dale,” said my companion at last with a sigh, “unless we patiently cut a way through with your knife; one cutting, while the other keeps on throwing the chips out of the window so that they cannot be seen.”“But we shall make a big hole,” I objected, “and the first time that Jarette comes in he will see it, and put us somewhere else.”“Of course. It looks very hopeless, my lad.”“You see we want holes, sir, so that we could take out one board from top to bottom quite whole, and put it back just as it was.”“Yes; but how are we to do that without tools?”“I thought doctors always had a lot of tools,” I said; “knives and saws and choppers for operations.”“Ah!” he ejaculated. “My head has not come right yet after that injury. Why, look here, lad!”He went to a drawer fitted into a chest, and drew it open to take out a mahogany case in which, lying on blue velvet, were some of the things I had named—knives, and a couple of saws, beside other instruments whose purpose I did not grasp.“We draw the line at choppers, Dale,” he said, smiling; “and I suppose I ought not to devote my choice instruments to such a duty, but I think these will do.”“Splendidly!” I cried in delight, as I quite gloated over the bright steel saw. “Why, with one of those I can get a whole board out in an hour or two.”“Without being heard?”“I didn’t think of that,” I said. “Let’s see what noise it would make.”“No,” said Mr Frewen, quietly. “We must wait till night; and it will be a very much longer task than you think, because we shall have to work so slowly.”“Wait till night!” I cried impatiently.He nodded, and the dreary, slow way in which the rest of that day passed was terrible. It was as if the sun would never set; but Mr Frewen was right. There were two interruptions to expect—the coming of the man who would bring us our evening meal, a sort of tea-dinner-supper, and possibly a visit from Jarette to fetch Mr Frewen to see the captain.The man came with our comfortless, unsatisfactory meal, at which I grumbled, but which Mr Frewen said was far better than ordinary prison fare; and just at dark, as he had suggested, we were startled by the sudden rattling at the fastening of our door.Then Jarette appeared, and signed imperiously to Mr Frewen to follow him.My companion frowned, but he rose and followed; not to obey Jarette, as he afterwards said, but to go and attend upon the captain.I rose to go too; but as I reached the door, Jarette rudely thrust me back, so that I staggered to the cabin-window.“Non!” he ejaculated sharply; and the door was banged to and fastened before I had recovered from my surprise.“Never mind,” I said to myself; “wait a bit,” as I bit my lips and stood with clenched fists, thinking in my annoyance how much I should like to use them.But I consoled myself by going to Mr Frewen’s drawer and opening the case and looking at the bright steel saws, and then talking in a whisper to Mr Preddle, who came to the little opening to know whether anything was the matter.I did not tell him about the saws after I had said that Mr Frewen had been fetched, but thought I would leave that for my companion to do, and then waited till he came; but he was so long that I began to be afraid he had been placed in another cabin, the mutineer chief having suddenly become suspicious of our hatching a conspiracy to escape.He came at last, though, to my very great relief, and told me that he thought Jarette, in spite of his display of bravado and carelessness, was alarmed about Captain Berriman’s state, and afraid that he would die.“And is he in a dangerous state?” I asked anxiously.“No; only a little feverish, as the natural result of his wound.”“That was what made you stay so long then?” I said.“Well, no,” he replied, with a smile. “I’m afraid I tried to impose upon our new captain by assuming to be very much concerned about poor Berriman’s state; but I had another reason as well. I wanted to try and have a few words with the Dennings, whom I could hear in the next cabin.”“Yes; and did you?” I asked eagerly.“No, I was too closely watched. I could have whispered to them through the hole made by the bullet; but Jarette was at the door all the time that he was not in the cabin watching me, and I could not say anything aloud for them to hear without his knowing what I said.”“I know what I should have done,” I cried.“What?”“Told them what our plans were in French.”“That would have been clever,” he said dryly, “for a Frenchman to hear.”“How absurd!” I said. “Well then, in German.”“Equally absurd, Dale. I hardly know a word.”“Well then, in Latin.”“My studies in Caesar and Horace never gave me the power to be conversational, Dale,” he replied; and soon after, as it was now getting late, and from the sounds we heard forward it was evident that the crew were enjoying themselves, Mr Frewen proposed that we should make our first start at cutting the board.Word was passed through the opening to Mr Preddle, who was all eagerness to begin, and asked for one of the little saws, so that he might work at the top of the board while we cut at the bottom; but Mr Frewen promptly decided that one of the instruments would make quite enough noise, and told him that he must understand that our task was one probably of days, for everything must be done slowly and carefully, and in a way that would leave no traces behind.“Very well,” said Mr Preddle, almost petulantly, “you know best; but I am very, very anxious to get out of this wretched cabin.”“So are we,” said Mr Frewen. “Help us, then, by keeping guard by your door, and at the slightest sound outside giving us the alarm.”“Yes, yes; of course,” he said eagerly; and directly after, in the darkness, I heard Mr Frewen open the drawer and the instrument-case, to take out the little saw which might open our prison, and cut a way into another for the scoundrelly mutineers.“How are you going to begin?” I whispered, after listening at the door. “Shall I bore some holes first to make a way in for the saw?”“They will not be necessary,” he replied. “I can manage to cut a way across the last board but one.”“Why not the last?” I asked.“Not enough room to work. I shall try to cut in a sloping way to splay the board if I can, so that it will fit better when we put it back—if we get one out. Hush!—don’t talk.”I stood close by him, ready to help in any way he required, and expected that when he grew tired he would ask me to take his place, so that no time might be lost.We had one advantage that I have not mentioned, and it was this. We were of course locked in, but there was a bolt on the door, so that we could secure ourselves on the inside from any sudden interruption; and by keeping the door fastened, there would be time to hide the saw and brush away the dust before any one who came was admitted.My position was facing the little round window of the cabin as Mr Frewen made the first start toward obtaining our freedom; and as the saw began to bite at the wood with a sound like that which would be made by a gnawing mouse, I stood gazing out at the beauty of the grand tropic night. It was very dark, but it was a transparent darkness, with the sky within reach of my vision thickly spangled with stars, which were so brightly reflected in the calm sea through which we were gliding gently, that there were moments when I could hardly tell where the sky ended and the sea began.Then faintly and steadily rasp, rasp, rasp went the saw, with so little noise that it did not seem likely that any one out in the saloon would hear it; and though at the first cut or two my heart began to beat with dread, a few minutes later it was throbbing with exultation.For every gnaw of that little keen-toothed instrument sent a thrill of hope through me; and I did not stop to consider what we were to do, or what were our probabilities of success when we reached the saloon, for it seemed to me then that the rest would come. And on it went, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw at the soft grain of the pine-wood board, very slowly, but very surely, I knew; and I was just going to whisper to Mr Frewen, and ask him whether he would like me to take a turn, when the sawing stopped.“Only for a few minutes’ breath,” he whispered.“Shall I take a turn?”“When we cut the bottom one. I am taller and stronger, and can get at this better than you.”Then he began again, and I gazed through the cabin-window, and listened both to his working on the thick board, and for any sound which might indicate that a sentry had taken alarm.But all was silent; and comforting myself with the belief that if the noise was heard it might be taken for the gnawing of a rat, I listened and watched the stars.At last I was in such a state of nervous excitement that I was on the point of begging my companion, to let me take a turn, when from being so intensely hot I suddenly turned speechless and cold. For it suddenly occurred to me that the stars were blotted out, and that the night was blacker.“A cloud,” I said to myself at first, but even as I thought that, I felt that it could not be; and at last I was lifting my hand to touch Mr Frewen, and draw his attention to the strange phenomenon, when the sawing suddenly ceased. My companion drew a long breath; and at the same moment, as I felt drawn toward the window by some strange attraction, to try and make out why it was so dark, there was the sound of another deep breath, and I felt it hot and strange right in my face, as in a hoarse whisper some one said—“How are you getting on?”

“Here, this way,” said Jarette, fiercely, “and now you’ll see that I’m not a man to be played with. I’m captain here now, and it’s obey me or—”

He snatched a pistol from his breast and held it menacingly toward Frewen, who flashed out at him—

“Put that thing away, madman, and show me my patient. Which cabin is it?”

“That one,” said Jarette, surlily. Then showing his teeth, he said in a peculiar tone of voice—“They say it’s kill or cure with your set; let it be cure this time, or perhaps it may be kill afterwards. Come on. Go in there.”

He signed to a man acting as sentry by one of the doors well aft, and the man drew back while Frewen brushed by the scoundrel who held it open, and entered quickly, I following ready to do everything I could to help.

I entered that cabin fully expecting to see Miss Denning lying bleeding on the floor, and I am sure that this was Mr Frewen’s impression; but to the surprise of both it was a totally different person, for there lay the captain in one corner, his head slightly raised, staring at us wildly as he held one hand pressed to his shoulder, and his eyes were so fixed that for the moment I was ready to think that he was passing away. But a faint smile came upon his face as he looked up at the doctor, and then he smiled at me.

I darted a look full of horror and sympathy at him, and then closed the door, while as I turned I saw that the woodwork side of the cabin was marked by a bullet, for so I took it to be, which had splintered the board all round a good-sized hole.

Mr Frewen went down on one knee by the captain, and took the hand which rested on his shoulder, pressed it, and then began to examine the injury.

“Come and help me, Dale,” he said; “we must get him in a different position.”

“Perhaps—I can help,” said the captain faintly. “The scoundrel shot me.”

“Don’t try to talk,” said Mr Frewen, quickly. “Wait till I have bandaged the wound.”

But as he spoke I noticed how he watched Captain Berriman, and seemed to take special heed of him as he whispered the above words evidently with pain.

“Is it very bad, doctor?” he whispered now after Mr Frewen had been busy about his breast, and shoulder for a few minutes. “You can tell me, I can bear it.”

“Bad enough, but not so bad as it might have been if it had gone an inch lower. But keep quiet, talking will only distress you, and tend to make you feverish. There,” he said at last, “there will be no more bleeding, and that was the only danger to apprehend.”

By this time the captain was lying in an easy position, carefully bandaged and apparently suffering less.

“He came in—”

“Hush! don’t tell me; I know—as he did to us with inviting propositions. We heard your angry words, and the coward shot at you. But that shriek, surely it was Miss Denning’s?”

“Yes,” whispered the captain. “The bullet crashed through there afterwards and struck Mr Denning. Not hurt, but his sister shrieked on hearing the shot and seeing him fall.”

“Then they are in there?”

The captain nodded.

“And can hear our words?”

There was another movement of the head.

“Then let them hear that we are trying hard to put an end to this miserable state of affairs. Mr Denning should be ready to help us if called upon.”

There was a gentle tapping on the partition at this, and I was on my way to the bulk-head to reply, when the cabin-door was opened and Jarette came inside.

“Come, doctor, you must be done if you can find all that time for talking. Can you save him?”

“I am trying, sir, if only to be prepared to have a witness against you when the time comes for your punishment.”

“Oh yes, of course, doctor, we know all about that. This way, sir. Now, boy. Come!”

“Good-bye, Captain Berriman,” I said, as I leaned over my poor officer and pressed his hand. Then in a whisper—“Cheer up! Perhaps we shall re-take the ship after all.”

Then I followed the doctor, and a minute later we were once more under lock and key, while as I crossed the saloon I saw that a couple of men were pacing up and down, pistol in hand.

I made a remark about this, and then I spoke about the way in which the powder had driven in all the end of the saloon.

“I suppose Jarette must have used about all there is now.”

Mr Frewen shook his head.

“Didn’t you know?” he said. “There is a large quantity on board. It is being taken—across for blasting purposes in New Zealand. Jarette, I suppose, helped with the lading, and knew where it was stowed. That accounts for its being brought out so soon.”

“Pity we can’t give them a dose of it,” I said, “so as to frighten them into better order. Just fancy, Mr Frewen, dropping a bagful into the forecastle with a fuse attached and lit; how they would run for the hatch, and before they could reach it—bang!”

“Yes, with that part of the deck blown up and a dozen or so of wretched mutilated creatures lying about shrieking for help. Well, Dale, I dare say there is one of the bags somewhere about the cabins, but I don’t think you could use it.”

“Well, now you talk like that, I don’t think I should like to,” I said.

“I am sure you would not, boy. You and I could not fight that way. We must have a better way than that.”

We lay there trying to think out some plan for the rest of that day, sometimes talking to ourselves, sometimes with Mr Preddle joining in; but for the most part he could talk about nothing else but his own troubles, and about his fish, which he was sure were dying off rapidly, for no one, he said, could attend to them like he would himself.

“Unless it was you, Dale,” he whispered apologetically. “You certainly did seem to understand them almost as well as I did myself. Ah, I’d give almost anything to be out there attending to the poor little things, but I could not go at the cost that was proposed.”

He sighed very deeply, drew back, and the little hole was darkened directly after, for Mr Preddle had lain down to meditate upon the sufferings of his fish, and when I peeped through at him a few minutes later he was still meditating with his eyes shut and his mouth open, while a peculiar sound came at regular intervals from between his lips.

Mr Frewen looked at me inquiringly as I turned round.

“Sound asleep,” I whispered.

“Poor Mr Preddle,” said Mr Frewen, “he is a very good amiable fellow, but I think that you and I must make our plans, Dale, and call upon him to help when all is ready.”

I nodded, for I thought so too, and after listening for a few moments at the door, we came to the conclusion that there was nothing to mind about the sentries, so we proceeded to make our examination of our prison in a more determined way.

Several times my fingers had played about the knife I had in my pocket, and I had longed to bore holes in the cabin-door so as to watch the sentries; but of course I was checked by the knowledge that by making a hole through which I could watch them I was providing one by which they could watch us.

The cabins on either side of the saloon were only so many portions of the ship boarded off, and provided with doors, so that a couple of carpenters would have had little difficulty in clearing away the partition and making one long opening, but we had no tools, and the slightest noise would have drawn attention to our acts; and these ideas would, we knew, govern our actions in all we did.

Our idea was of course to get a board out between the doctor’s cabin and Mr Preddle’s, and if possible one at the darkest portion of the place close up to the ship’s side; but examine as we would, there did not appear to be one that it would be possible to move, try how we would.

“It seems to be a very hopeless case, Dale,” said my companion at last with a sigh, “unless we patiently cut a way through with your knife; one cutting, while the other keeps on throwing the chips out of the window so that they cannot be seen.”

“But we shall make a big hole,” I objected, “and the first time that Jarette comes in he will see it, and put us somewhere else.”

“Of course. It looks very hopeless, my lad.”

“You see we want holes, sir, so that we could take out one board from top to bottom quite whole, and put it back just as it was.”

“Yes; but how are we to do that without tools?”

“I thought doctors always had a lot of tools,” I said; “knives and saws and choppers for operations.”

“Ah!” he ejaculated. “My head has not come right yet after that injury. Why, look here, lad!”

He went to a drawer fitted into a chest, and drew it open to take out a mahogany case in which, lying on blue velvet, were some of the things I had named—knives, and a couple of saws, beside other instruments whose purpose I did not grasp.

“We draw the line at choppers, Dale,” he said, smiling; “and I suppose I ought not to devote my choice instruments to such a duty, but I think these will do.”

“Splendidly!” I cried in delight, as I quite gloated over the bright steel saw. “Why, with one of those I can get a whole board out in an hour or two.”

“Without being heard?”

“I didn’t think of that,” I said. “Let’s see what noise it would make.”

“No,” said Mr Frewen, quietly. “We must wait till night; and it will be a very much longer task than you think, because we shall have to work so slowly.”

“Wait till night!” I cried impatiently.

He nodded, and the dreary, slow way in which the rest of that day passed was terrible. It was as if the sun would never set; but Mr Frewen was right. There were two interruptions to expect—the coming of the man who would bring us our evening meal, a sort of tea-dinner-supper, and possibly a visit from Jarette to fetch Mr Frewen to see the captain.

The man came with our comfortless, unsatisfactory meal, at which I grumbled, but which Mr Frewen said was far better than ordinary prison fare; and just at dark, as he had suggested, we were startled by the sudden rattling at the fastening of our door.

Then Jarette appeared, and signed imperiously to Mr Frewen to follow him.

My companion frowned, but he rose and followed; not to obey Jarette, as he afterwards said, but to go and attend upon the captain.

I rose to go too; but as I reached the door, Jarette rudely thrust me back, so that I staggered to the cabin-window.

“Non!” he ejaculated sharply; and the door was banged to and fastened before I had recovered from my surprise.

“Never mind,” I said to myself; “wait a bit,” as I bit my lips and stood with clenched fists, thinking in my annoyance how much I should like to use them.

But I consoled myself by going to Mr Frewen’s drawer and opening the case and looking at the bright steel saws, and then talking in a whisper to Mr Preddle, who came to the little opening to know whether anything was the matter.

I did not tell him about the saws after I had said that Mr Frewen had been fetched, but thought I would leave that for my companion to do, and then waited till he came; but he was so long that I began to be afraid he had been placed in another cabin, the mutineer chief having suddenly become suspicious of our hatching a conspiracy to escape.

He came at last, though, to my very great relief, and told me that he thought Jarette, in spite of his display of bravado and carelessness, was alarmed about Captain Berriman’s state, and afraid that he would die.

“And is he in a dangerous state?” I asked anxiously.

“No; only a little feverish, as the natural result of his wound.”

“That was what made you stay so long then?” I said.

“Well, no,” he replied, with a smile. “I’m afraid I tried to impose upon our new captain by assuming to be very much concerned about poor Berriman’s state; but I had another reason as well. I wanted to try and have a few words with the Dennings, whom I could hear in the next cabin.”

“Yes; and did you?” I asked eagerly.

“No, I was too closely watched. I could have whispered to them through the hole made by the bullet; but Jarette was at the door all the time that he was not in the cabin watching me, and I could not say anything aloud for them to hear without his knowing what I said.”

“I know what I should have done,” I cried.

“What?”

“Told them what our plans were in French.”

“That would have been clever,” he said dryly, “for a Frenchman to hear.”

“How absurd!” I said. “Well then, in German.”

“Equally absurd, Dale. I hardly know a word.”

“Well then, in Latin.”

“My studies in Caesar and Horace never gave me the power to be conversational, Dale,” he replied; and soon after, as it was now getting late, and from the sounds we heard forward it was evident that the crew were enjoying themselves, Mr Frewen proposed that we should make our first start at cutting the board.

Word was passed through the opening to Mr Preddle, who was all eagerness to begin, and asked for one of the little saws, so that he might work at the top of the board while we cut at the bottom; but Mr Frewen promptly decided that one of the instruments would make quite enough noise, and told him that he must understand that our task was one probably of days, for everything must be done slowly and carefully, and in a way that would leave no traces behind.

“Very well,” said Mr Preddle, almost petulantly, “you know best; but I am very, very anxious to get out of this wretched cabin.”

“So are we,” said Mr Frewen. “Help us, then, by keeping guard by your door, and at the slightest sound outside giving us the alarm.”

“Yes, yes; of course,” he said eagerly; and directly after, in the darkness, I heard Mr Frewen open the drawer and the instrument-case, to take out the little saw which might open our prison, and cut a way into another for the scoundrelly mutineers.

“How are you going to begin?” I whispered, after listening at the door. “Shall I bore some holes first to make a way in for the saw?”

“They will not be necessary,” he replied. “I can manage to cut a way across the last board but one.”

“Why not the last?” I asked.

“Not enough room to work. I shall try to cut in a sloping way to splay the board if I can, so that it will fit better when we put it back—if we get one out. Hush!—don’t talk.”

I stood close by him, ready to help in any way he required, and expected that when he grew tired he would ask me to take his place, so that no time might be lost.

We had one advantage that I have not mentioned, and it was this. We were of course locked in, but there was a bolt on the door, so that we could secure ourselves on the inside from any sudden interruption; and by keeping the door fastened, there would be time to hide the saw and brush away the dust before any one who came was admitted.

My position was facing the little round window of the cabin as Mr Frewen made the first start toward obtaining our freedom; and as the saw began to bite at the wood with a sound like that which would be made by a gnawing mouse, I stood gazing out at the beauty of the grand tropic night. It was very dark, but it was a transparent darkness, with the sky within reach of my vision thickly spangled with stars, which were so brightly reflected in the calm sea through which we were gliding gently, that there were moments when I could hardly tell where the sky ended and the sea began.

Then faintly and steadily rasp, rasp, rasp went the saw, with so little noise that it did not seem likely that any one out in the saloon would hear it; and though at the first cut or two my heart began to beat with dread, a few minutes later it was throbbing with exultation.

For every gnaw of that little keen-toothed instrument sent a thrill of hope through me; and I did not stop to consider what we were to do, or what were our probabilities of success when we reached the saloon, for it seemed to me then that the rest would come. And on it went, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw at the soft grain of the pine-wood board, very slowly, but very surely, I knew; and I was just going to whisper to Mr Frewen, and ask him whether he would like me to take a turn, when the sawing stopped.

“Only for a few minutes’ breath,” he whispered.

“Shall I take a turn?”

“When we cut the bottom one. I am taller and stronger, and can get at this better than you.”

Then he began again, and I gazed through the cabin-window, and listened both to his working on the thick board, and for any sound which might indicate that a sentry had taken alarm.

But all was silent; and comforting myself with the belief that if the noise was heard it might be taken for the gnawing of a rat, I listened and watched the stars.

At last I was in such a state of nervous excitement that I was on the point of begging my companion, to let me take a turn, when from being so intensely hot I suddenly turned speechless and cold. For it suddenly occurred to me that the stars were blotted out, and that the night was blacker.

“A cloud,” I said to myself at first, but even as I thought that, I felt that it could not be; and at last I was lifting my hand to touch Mr Frewen, and draw his attention to the strange phenomenon, when the sawing suddenly ceased. My companion drew a long breath; and at the same moment, as I felt drawn toward the window by some strange attraction, to try and make out why it was so dark, there was the sound of another deep breath, and I felt it hot and strange right in my face, as in a hoarse whisper some one said—

“How are you getting on?”

Chapter Twenty.For a few moments I could not utter a word in that black darkness. I heard Mr Frewen give a sudden start and his elbow jar against the partition, but he too was silent, save that I could hear his hurried breathing.Then some one spoke again—“Can’t you hear me there? I says, how are you getting on?”“Bob Hampton!” I cried excitedly.“Pst! Steady, my lad. Bob Hampton it is. But don’t shout, or some ’un ’ll hear you, and ’ll come along the deck overhead and cut me adrift.”“But what are you doing there?”“Hanging on to a bit o’ line made fast to a belaying-pin.”“But why? What do you want, sir?”“Will yer keep quiet, my lad?” whispered the man, excitedly. “I don’t want to hear old Jarette sawing through this rope. What do I want? Come, I like that, arter risking all this here to get a word with you.”“Go back to your friends, you scoundrel,” whispered Mr Frewen; “you have come to spy upon us!”“Wheer’s my lantern, then? Man can’t spy a night like this, when it’s as black as inside a water-cask in a ship’s hold.”“Mr Frewen is right,” I said. “Go back to your friends.”“Arn’t got none forrard, leastwise only two; I’ve come to say ‘how de do.’”“Don’t trust him, Mr Frewen, he’s a traitor,” I whispered; only Hampton evidently heard.“Come, I like that, Mr Dale, sir. But I say, how could you be so easily took in? Theer was nothing else for a man to do but to go with the bad beggars, and when I seemed to jyne ’em, why of course Neb Dumlow and old Barney joined at once.”“Bob!” I ejaculated, as a feeling of delight sent a flush of blood to my cheeks, and I felt hot and excited once more, “you don’t mean to say that—”“But I just do, sir. ’Tarn’t likely I should run all this risk if I didn’t mean it.”“You hear, Mr Frewen,” I whispered.“Yes, but—”“Look here,” said Bob Hampton, angrily, “am I to creep in and stuff something into your mouth, Mr Dale, sir? You don’t know how sounds run on a still night like this. It’s grim death for me if I’m found out.”“Then you are true to us all the same, Bob?” I cried, reaching out to lay my hand upon the man’s shoulder.“True as gorspel, sir; and ready along with Neb Dumlow and Barney Blane to pitch old Frenchy overboard, or drown him in a water-cask, if you say the word, or Mr Frewen either, though I’d rayther take it from you, my lad, as you’re one of the officers of the Burgh Castle and it’d come better like than from our doctor, and no disrespectment either.”“How are we to know that we are to trust you, Hampton?” said Mr Frewen.“Tell you dreckly, sir, soon as I can get foot-hold. I’m pretty strong in the arms, but you can’t hang by them as long as you can stand on your legs, ’less you’re born a monkey, which I warn’t. You see there’s no board nor nothing to get a foot on, and I knows without trying that I couldn’t get through that window.”“How can we help him, Dale?” whispered Mr Frewen. “I suppose we must trust him?”“Trust him? Yes, of course. Stop a moment. Yes, I know.” Then thrusting my arms out—“Hold hard a minute, Bob,” I whispered. “Let me get hold of the rope and haul up the end.”“What for, lad?”“For us to draw in here and make fast, then you can stand in the bight like a stirrup.”“Well, you are a wunner, Mr Dale, sir,” he replied. “Haul away, there’s plenty down below; I should never have thought of that.”In a very few seconds I had pulled in the lower part of the rope by which he was swinging, got hold of the dripping end and passed it to Mr Frewen, letting the rest fall back like a big loop, but not so quietly as I could have wished. Then we hauled in slowly, till after a little management we had the bight so exactly adjusted that Bob Hampton’s feet rested upon it while we held the rope tight.“Hah!” he whispered, with his face close to the cabin-window, “that rests my flippers. Mind, I’m going to ease off a bit now, but if you two slacken down I shall go, and there won’t be time to say good-bye.”“You may trust us, Bob,” I said.“Ay, ay, my lad, I will, and the least thing as you can do is to trust me and my mates.”“I will, Bob, and I’m sure Mr Frewen will, but we couldn’t help thinking you were a traitor.”“Course you couldn’t, lad. On’y nat’ral. But you see now as it was on’y make-believe.”“There’s my hand, Hampton,” said Mr Frewen.“Thankye kindly, sir. That sounds English, on’y I can’t give it a grip, ’cause I’m holding on. But if you’d just stuff one finger in my mouth I’ll bite it if you like, to show I mean square and honest by you all.”“Never mind that, Hampton,” said Mr Frewen; “we’ll take it as being all right.”“Right it is then,” said Bob Hampton, with a satisfied grunt, “on’y let’s speak gently.”“Can you help us to escape, Bob?” I whispered. “Can’t we re-take the ship?”“Steady, my lad, don’t get out o’ breath. That’s what we come about, and Neb Dumlow’s bylin’ over to do it.”“Tell us first what is the state of affairs,” said Mr Frewen.“State of affairs is, that all the orficers and you the doctor, along with the passengers, is prisoners, and Frenchy Jarette’s skipper of the Burgh Castle, with that there rat of a ’prentice or middy, or whatever he calls hisself, first mate.”“But where are we going?” said Mr Frewen.“Nobody knows but Frenchy, and there is times when I think he don’t know. For he’s as mad as a whole cargo o’ hatters or he’d never ha’ done what he has. But look sharp, sir, I can’t stop long. If he found out, he’d cut the rope and send me adrift as soon as look at me, and that would be a pity, ’cause if there’s one man as I do respeck and like it’s Bob Hampton, mariner, spite of his looks.”“Yes, we’ll be quick,” said Mr Frewen.“Is anything the matter?” came in a loud whisper.“Oh lor’! Here I goes,” groaned Bob Hampton.“No, no; it’s all right,” I whispered. “That was only Mr Preddle.”“I thought it was Frenchy, sir.”“Hush! No, nothing wrong. Help come,” whispered Mr Frewen. “Wait!”Then coming back to the window—“Now, Hampton, what can you suggest?”“Well, sir, I’ve been thinking that if you gents— Pst!”He ceased whispering in at the cabin-window, for just then we heard steps overhead as if two people were walking along the deck, and directly after I could make out voices in eager conversation fairly loud for a few moments, and then they died away, and I knew by the sounds that the speakers had gone right aft. Then Jarette’s voice was heard making inquiries of the man at the wheel, to whom he stopped talking for a few minutes, which seemed to extend into an age of anxiety to me who listened so anxiously and in such dread lest the scoundrel should return and lean over the bulwark, or run his hand along, feel the rope, and so discover poor Hampton. Then I felt sure that he would have no hesitation in cutting him adrift, and that meant death to a brave and true man.I felt a horrible pang of dread at these thoughts, and softly thrusting out my hand, I felt for and gripped Bob Hampton’s great paw as it held on to the rope, and then whispering to Mr Frewen to do the same, I took tightly hold of the man’s wrist with some idea of saving him if the scoundrel on deck should hear, and cut the rope.The next minute, to my horror, as with one hand grasping the rope and the other Bob Hampton’s arm, Mr Frewen and I stood face to face close to the cabin-window, we heard the voices on deck come nearer, then stop just overhead, and as far as I could judge, the speaker stood leaning against the bulwarks, so that we could distinctly hear Walters say—“Why don’t you send them all adrift in one of the boats?”“Because we are not near enough to land, my son,” replied Jarette; “and I am so anxious about my young lieutenant. It would grieve me to death to see him hung for a pirate.”“I wish you would talk common-sense, Jarette, and not be so fond of chaffing me. You’ll make me wish some day that I had not joined you.”The Frenchman laughed derisively. “Why, my little brave,” he cried, “what a dust-filled-eyed one you think me. Do I not know that you have been in a tremble ever since?”“No, you don’t,” said Walters, sharply. “I’m sure I’ve done everything I can.”“My faith, yes; we will say it is so,” said Jarette, with another sneering laugh. “It is wonderful how nervous men are who have their necks in the noose—boys too.”At that moment we felt Hampton softly loosen his hold of the rope with one hand, and pass it and his arm in at the window so as to get a grip inside, for evidently he expected that the rope would be discovered and cut. Though even then, unless Jarette were willing to save him, it would only be prolonging his existence for a few minutes, since it would have been impossible for us to draw so bulky a man through the circular hole which lit and ventilated Mr Frewen’s cabin.But he was safe for the time, come what might, and we remained there listening to the conversation overhead, gathering that there was very little friendship existing between Walters and his new captain, who let us know that he was in great perplexity about his prisoners, and certainly not in the mind then to end their lives. What might happen afterwards we could not say.At last, after some minutes that felt like hours, they went on and down the ladder to the lower deck.“Phew!” panted Bob Hampton. “Oh, my lad, my lad, why didn’t you whistle a jig out of the window?”“Why didn’t I what?” I cried.“Whistle a toon, my lad. That would ha’ let ’em know you could hear ’em talking, and they’d ha’ gone. Hold me tight, please, for I’m ’bout spent.”The man spoke so faintly that we took alarm.“No, no, Bob,” I whispered. “Don’t say that. Rest for a few moments, and then climb back on deck.”“Rest?” he said, in so pitiful a tone that I tightened my grasp all I possibly could, and felt how absurd my advice was to a man in such a position.“You couldn’t haul me in?” he whispered faintly.“No,” I said despairingly. “It is impossible.”“Impossible it is,” he groaned. “Well, I shall have to face it.”“What do you mean, man?” whispered Mr Frewen.“What we’ve all got to face, doctor. I couldn’t swarm up that rope again.”“Dale, could we get the rope round his waist, and hold him?” whispered Mr Frewen.“Here! hist! quick!” came through the opening where Mr Preddle was listening all the time.“Silence!” cried Mr Frewen, sternly. “What do you say, Hampton?”“I says as if you takes the line from under my feet for half a moment down I goes, for all the feeling’s gone out of my arms. I’m done.”“No, no,” I whispered in desperation. “Hold on, Bob; we must—we will save you.”“Ay, lad,” he said dolefully, “I’ll hold on as long as I can; but if you two are going to save me, you’ll have to be very smart about it, I’m afraid.”“Mr Frewen! Dale!” came from the opening.“Silence, I say!” cried the doctor, fiercely.“I won’t be silent,” cried Mr Preddle. “Here, Dale, take this; I’ve pushed it through as far as I can reach. Give it him. Brandy.”“Ah!” ejaculated Mr Frewen. “Quick.”I had already reached out with the hand which I had taken from Hampton’s wrist, and was fishing about with it in the dark, but without a bite.“Where is it?” I cried; but as I spoke my knuckles came in contact with the leather-covered flask so sharply, that I knocked it out of Mr Preddle’s hand, and it fell with a bang on the floor, upon which the spirit began to gurgle out.Bob Hampton groaned, and I felt that all was over; but hanging on to the rope I bent down, and guided by the sound seized the flask, gave it a shake, which told me that there was yet a good deal inside, and the next moment I was holding it to the poor fellow’s lips, and listening to the gurgling the spirit made as he gulped quite a couple of mouthfuls down.I knew he had taken it all, for I had at last raised the flask quite upright, and he drew his lips away.“Now, Hampton,” whispered Mr Frewen, “hold on for a little till the spirit begins to stimulate you.”“It’s begun a’ready, doctor,” was the answer. “It’s put new life into me, sir, and I’m going to make a try for it directly.”“Not for a minute, man, not for a minute.”“In half a minute, sir, or it’s of no good, for I’m a heavy man.”I tried to speak, but no words would come, for I felt as if my mouth and throat were quite dry, and there I stood hanging on to the rope, till in a curious hoarse whisper the man said—“I’d say make fast the end o’ the rope about me; but—”“Can you hold on the while?” I said; for my voice came back at this.“Try, lad.”I don’t know how I did it in so short a time; but it was Bob Hampton’s teaching that made me so quick, as, leaving Mr Frewen to hold up the bight, I seized the end, passed it round the man’s chest, and made it fast, and as I finished he said softly—“Here goes!”Then he began to climb, and as he went up I soon found that the rope was being drawn through our hands. But we kept our touch of it, so that if he fell we could still let it glide till he reached the water, and then hold on till a boat was lowered to save him. Up he went, breathing very hard, higher and higher, with a loud, rustling noise. Then he stopped a little, and we tightened our hold, for we thought he was gone; but he struggled on again, up and up, and at last hung quite still, and now we felt that it was all over, for he was exhausted. I listened for the horrible splash, but it did not come, for he began again, and we heard one of his hands give a sharp smack.“What’s that?” whispered Mr Preddle through the opening, but neither of us replied.We could not, though we knew that Bob Hampton must have loosened his grip of the rope with one hand to make a dash at the top of the bulwarks. Then there came a faint scraping sound, and I turned giddy from the cessation of the intense drag upon my brain. For I knew that the poor fellow had reached the deck. In proof thereof the rope was shaken sharply, and then jerked out of our hands. A faint scraping sound followed, and I knew it was being drawn up.I heard no more till Mr Frewen spoke to me; his voice sounding strange through a peculiar, loud, humming noise in my ears.“Feel better, my lad?”“Better!” I said wonderingly. “I’m not ill.”“Oh no,” he said, “not ill; only a little faint.”“Here,” I said sharply, “why did you lay me on the floor?”“You fell,” he said; “or rather you slipped down. There, drink a little of this water.”“Is he all right again?” came out of the darkness in a sharp whisper.“Yes, coming round now,” I heard Mr Frewen say.“Yes, I remember now,” I cried quickly. “But Bob Hampton, did he get up safely?”“Yes, quite safely.”Just then there was a sharp rattling of the door, and it was thrown open, while I closed my lids, so dazzling did the light of the lanterns which were held up above the heads of Jarette and Walters seem to my aching eyes.

For a few moments I could not utter a word in that black darkness. I heard Mr Frewen give a sudden start and his elbow jar against the partition, but he too was silent, save that I could hear his hurried breathing.

Then some one spoke again—

“Can’t you hear me there? I says, how are you getting on?”

“Bob Hampton!” I cried excitedly.

“Pst! Steady, my lad. Bob Hampton it is. But don’t shout, or some ’un ’ll hear you, and ’ll come along the deck overhead and cut me adrift.”

“But what are you doing there?”

“Hanging on to a bit o’ line made fast to a belaying-pin.”

“But why? What do you want, sir?”

“Will yer keep quiet, my lad?” whispered the man, excitedly. “I don’t want to hear old Jarette sawing through this rope. What do I want? Come, I like that, arter risking all this here to get a word with you.”

“Go back to your friends, you scoundrel,” whispered Mr Frewen; “you have come to spy upon us!”

“Wheer’s my lantern, then? Man can’t spy a night like this, when it’s as black as inside a water-cask in a ship’s hold.”

“Mr Frewen is right,” I said. “Go back to your friends.”

“Arn’t got none forrard, leastwise only two; I’ve come to say ‘how de do.’”

“Don’t trust him, Mr Frewen, he’s a traitor,” I whispered; only Hampton evidently heard.

“Come, I like that, Mr Dale, sir. But I say, how could you be so easily took in? Theer was nothing else for a man to do but to go with the bad beggars, and when I seemed to jyne ’em, why of course Neb Dumlow and old Barney joined at once.”

“Bob!” I ejaculated, as a feeling of delight sent a flush of blood to my cheeks, and I felt hot and excited once more, “you don’t mean to say that—”

“But I just do, sir. ’Tarn’t likely I should run all this risk if I didn’t mean it.”

“You hear, Mr Frewen,” I whispered.

“Yes, but—”

“Look here,” said Bob Hampton, angrily, “am I to creep in and stuff something into your mouth, Mr Dale, sir? You don’t know how sounds run on a still night like this. It’s grim death for me if I’m found out.”

“Then you are true to us all the same, Bob?” I cried, reaching out to lay my hand upon the man’s shoulder.

“True as gorspel, sir; and ready along with Neb Dumlow and Barney Blane to pitch old Frenchy overboard, or drown him in a water-cask, if you say the word, or Mr Frewen either, though I’d rayther take it from you, my lad, as you’re one of the officers of the Burgh Castle and it’d come better like than from our doctor, and no disrespectment either.”

“How are we to know that we are to trust you, Hampton?” said Mr Frewen.

“Tell you dreckly, sir, soon as I can get foot-hold. I’m pretty strong in the arms, but you can’t hang by them as long as you can stand on your legs, ’less you’re born a monkey, which I warn’t. You see there’s no board nor nothing to get a foot on, and I knows without trying that I couldn’t get through that window.”

“How can we help him, Dale?” whispered Mr Frewen. “I suppose we must trust him?”

“Trust him? Yes, of course. Stop a moment. Yes, I know.” Then thrusting my arms out—“Hold hard a minute, Bob,” I whispered. “Let me get hold of the rope and haul up the end.”

“What for, lad?”

“For us to draw in here and make fast, then you can stand in the bight like a stirrup.”

“Well, you are a wunner, Mr Dale, sir,” he replied. “Haul away, there’s plenty down below; I should never have thought of that.”

In a very few seconds I had pulled in the lower part of the rope by which he was swinging, got hold of the dripping end and passed it to Mr Frewen, letting the rest fall back like a big loop, but not so quietly as I could have wished. Then we hauled in slowly, till after a little management we had the bight so exactly adjusted that Bob Hampton’s feet rested upon it while we held the rope tight.

“Hah!” he whispered, with his face close to the cabin-window, “that rests my flippers. Mind, I’m going to ease off a bit now, but if you two slacken down I shall go, and there won’t be time to say good-bye.”

“You may trust us, Bob,” I said.

“Ay, ay, my lad, I will, and the least thing as you can do is to trust me and my mates.”

“I will, Bob, and I’m sure Mr Frewen will, but we couldn’t help thinking you were a traitor.”

“Course you couldn’t, lad. On’y nat’ral. But you see now as it was on’y make-believe.”

“There’s my hand, Hampton,” said Mr Frewen.

“Thankye kindly, sir. That sounds English, on’y I can’t give it a grip, ’cause I’m holding on. But if you’d just stuff one finger in my mouth I’ll bite it if you like, to show I mean square and honest by you all.”

“Never mind that, Hampton,” said Mr Frewen; “we’ll take it as being all right.”

“Right it is then,” said Bob Hampton, with a satisfied grunt, “on’y let’s speak gently.”

“Can you help us to escape, Bob?” I whispered. “Can’t we re-take the ship?”

“Steady, my lad, don’t get out o’ breath. That’s what we come about, and Neb Dumlow’s bylin’ over to do it.”

“Tell us first what is the state of affairs,” said Mr Frewen.

“State of affairs is, that all the orficers and you the doctor, along with the passengers, is prisoners, and Frenchy Jarette’s skipper of the Burgh Castle, with that there rat of a ’prentice or middy, or whatever he calls hisself, first mate.”

“But where are we going?” said Mr Frewen.

“Nobody knows but Frenchy, and there is times when I think he don’t know. For he’s as mad as a whole cargo o’ hatters or he’d never ha’ done what he has. But look sharp, sir, I can’t stop long. If he found out, he’d cut the rope and send me adrift as soon as look at me, and that would be a pity, ’cause if there’s one man as I do respeck and like it’s Bob Hampton, mariner, spite of his looks.”

“Yes, we’ll be quick,” said Mr Frewen.

“Is anything the matter?” came in a loud whisper.

“Oh lor’! Here I goes,” groaned Bob Hampton.

“No, no; it’s all right,” I whispered. “That was only Mr Preddle.”

“I thought it was Frenchy, sir.”

“Hush! No, nothing wrong. Help come,” whispered Mr Frewen. “Wait!”

Then coming back to the window—

“Now, Hampton, what can you suggest?”

“Well, sir, I’ve been thinking that if you gents— Pst!”

He ceased whispering in at the cabin-window, for just then we heard steps overhead as if two people were walking along the deck, and directly after I could make out voices in eager conversation fairly loud for a few moments, and then they died away, and I knew by the sounds that the speakers had gone right aft. Then Jarette’s voice was heard making inquiries of the man at the wheel, to whom he stopped talking for a few minutes, which seemed to extend into an age of anxiety to me who listened so anxiously and in such dread lest the scoundrel should return and lean over the bulwark, or run his hand along, feel the rope, and so discover poor Hampton. Then I felt sure that he would have no hesitation in cutting him adrift, and that meant death to a brave and true man.

I felt a horrible pang of dread at these thoughts, and softly thrusting out my hand, I felt for and gripped Bob Hampton’s great paw as it held on to the rope, and then whispering to Mr Frewen to do the same, I took tightly hold of the man’s wrist with some idea of saving him if the scoundrel on deck should hear, and cut the rope.

The next minute, to my horror, as with one hand grasping the rope and the other Bob Hampton’s arm, Mr Frewen and I stood face to face close to the cabin-window, we heard the voices on deck come nearer, then stop just overhead, and as far as I could judge, the speaker stood leaning against the bulwarks, so that we could distinctly hear Walters say—

“Why don’t you send them all adrift in one of the boats?”

“Because we are not near enough to land, my son,” replied Jarette; “and I am so anxious about my young lieutenant. It would grieve me to death to see him hung for a pirate.”

“I wish you would talk common-sense, Jarette, and not be so fond of chaffing me. You’ll make me wish some day that I had not joined you.”

The Frenchman laughed derisively. “Why, my little brave,” he cried, “what a dust-filled-eyed one you think me. Do I not know that you have been in a tremble ever since?”

“No, you don’t,” said Walters, sharply. “I’m sure I’ve done everything I can.”

“My faith, yes; we will say it is so,” said Jarette, with another sneering laugh. “It is wonderful how nervous men are who have their necks in the noose—boys too.”

At that moment we felt Hampton softly loosen his hold of the rope with one hand, and pass it and his arm in at the window so as to get a grip inside, for evidently he expected that the rope would be discovered and cut. Though even then, unless Jarette were willing to save him, it would only be prolonging his existence for a few minutes, since it would have been impossible for us to draw so bulky a man through the circular hole which lit and ventilated Mr Frewen’s cabin.

But he was safe for the time, come what might, and we remained there listening to the conversation overhead, gathering that there was very little friendship existing between Walters and his new captain, who let us know that he was in great perplexity about his prisoners, and certainly not in the mind then to end their lives. What might happen afterwards we could not say.

At last, after some minutes that felt like hours, they went on and down the ladder to the lower deck.

“Phew!” panted Bob Hampton. “Oh, my lad, my lad, why didn’t you whistle a jig out of the window?”

“Why didn’t I what?” I cried.

“Whistle a toon, my lad. That would ha’ let ’em know you could hear ’em talking, and they’d ha’ gone. Hold me tight, please, for I’m ’bout spent.”

The man spoke so faintly that we took alarm.

“No, no, Bob,” I whispered. “Don’t say that. Rest for a few moments, and then climb back on deck.”

“Rest?” he said, in so pitiful a tone that I tightened my grasp all I possibly could, and felt how absurd my advice was to a man in such a position.

“You couldn’t haul me in?” he whispered faintly.

“No,” I said despairingly. “It is impossible.”

“Impossible it is,” he groaned. “Well, I shall have to face it.”

“What do you mean, man?” whispered Mr Frewen.

“What we’ve all got to face, doctor. I couldn’t swarm up that rope again.”

“Dale, could we get the rope round his waist, and hold him?” whispered Mr Frewen.

“Here! hist! quick!” came through the opening where Mr Preddle was listening all the time.

“Silence!” cried Mr Frewen, sternly. “What do you say, Hampton?”

“I says as if you takes the line from under my feet for half a moment down I goes, for all the feeling’s gone out of my arms. I’m done.”

“No, no,” I whispered in desperation. “Hold on, Bob; we must—we will save you.”

“Ay, lad,” he said dolefully, “I’ll hold on as long as I can; but if you two are going to save me, you’ll have to be very smart about it, I’m afraid.”

“Mr Frewen! Dale!” came from the opening.

“Silence, I say!” cried the doctor, fiercely.

“I won’t be silent,” cried Mr Preddle. “Here, Dale, take this; I’ve pushed it through as far as I can reach. Give it him. Brandy.”

“Ah!” ejaculated Mr Frewen. “Quick.”

I had already reached out with the hand which I had taken from Hampton’s wrist, and was fishing about with it in the dark, but without a bite.

“Where is it?” I cried; but as I spoke my knuckles came in contact with the leather-covered flask so sharply, that I knocked it out of Mr Preddle’s hand, and it fell with a bang on the floor, upon which the spirit began to gurgle out.

Bob Hampton groaned, and I felt that all was over; but hanging on to the rope I bent down, and guided by the sound seized the flask, gave it a shake, which told me that there was yet a good deal inside, and the next moment I was holding it to the poor fellow’s lips, and listening to the gurgling the spirit made as he gulped quite a couple of mouthfuls down.

I knew he had taken it all, for I had at last raised the flask quite upright, and he drew his lips away.

“Now, Hampton,” whispered Mr Frewen, “hold on for a little till the spirit begins to stimulate you.”

“It’s begun a’ready, doctor,” was the answer. “It’s put new life into me, sir, and I’m going to make a try for it directly.”

“Not for a minute, man, not for a minute.”

“In half a minute, sir, or it’s of no good, for I’m a heavy man.”

I tried to speak, but no words would come, for I felt as if my mouth and throat were quite dry, and there I stood hanging on to the rope, till in a curious hoarse whisper the man said—

“I’d say make fast the end o’ the rope about me; but—”

“Can you hold on the while?” I said; for my voice came back at this.

“Try, lad.”

I don’t know how I did it in so short a time; but it was Bob Hampton’s teaching that made me so quick, as, leaving Mr Frewen to hold up the bight, I seized the end, passed it round the man’s chest, and made it fast, and as I finished he said softly—

“Here goes!”

Then he began to climb, and as he went up I soon found that the rope was being drawn through our hands. But we kept our touch of it, so that if he fell we could still let it glide till he reached the water, and then hold on till a boat was lowered to save him. Up he went, breathing very hard, higher and higher, with a loud, rustling noise. Then he stopped a little, and we tightened our hold, for we thought he was gone; but he struggled on again, up and up, and at last hung quite still, and now we felt that it was all over, for he was exhausted. I listened for the horrible splash, but it did not come, for he began again, and we heard one of his hands give a sharp smack.

“What’s that?” whispered Mr Preddle through the opening, but neither of us replied.

We could not, though we knew that Bob Hampton must have loosened his grip of the rope with one hand to make a dash at the top of the bulwarks. Then there came a faint scraping sound, and I turned giddy from the cessation of the intense drag upon my brain. For I knew that the poor fellow had reached the deck. In proof thereof the rope was shaken sharply, and then jerked out of our hands. A faint scraping sound followed, and I knew it was being drawn up.

I heard no more till Mr Frewen spoke to me; his voice sounding strange through a peculiar, loud, humming noise in my ears.

“Feel better, my lad?”

“Better!” I said wonderingly. “I’m not ill.”

“Oh no,” he said, “not ill; only a little faint.”

“Here,” I said sharply, “why did you lay me on the floor?”

“You fell,” he said; “or rather you slipped down. There, drink a little of this water.”

“Is he all right again?” came out of the darkness in a sharp whisper.

“Yes, coming round now,” I heard Mr Frewen say.

“Yes, I remember now,” I cried quickly. “But Bob Hampton, did he get up safely?”

“Yes, quite safely.”

Just then there was a sharp rattling of the door, and it was thrown open, while I closed my lids, so dazzling did the light of the lanterns which were held up above the heads of Jarette and Walters seem to my aching eyes.

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