es an
untamed tiger.

Thus thinking, Douglas fell into a deep and gloomy reverie, from which
he was aroused by the sounds of footsteps clattering about above his
head, accompanied by the occasional clank of arms, and several short,
crisp words of command. It sounded as though a body of men had been
formed up on the deck above him, and had then been marched off to some
other place. In a moment the horrible truth struck him; it was the
firing-party which had been told off for his own execution!

That he was right was proved by the fact that he almost immediately
afterwards heard footsteps approaching the door and echoing along the
passage. There was a rattle of keys, and he was confronted, this time,
by two armed seamen, who roughly bade him get on his feet and accompany
them. The poor lad was too thunderstruck to move for a few moments, so
one of the men prodded him roughly with his bayonet, and again bade him
rise. Jim then got on his legs, with the blood streaming from the
thrust which had been inflicted in his thigh, and between the two guards
he again made his way to the main deck. This time, however, he was not
taken so far aft as before, but was conducted up the main companion
stairs on to the upper deck.

Having arrived there, the intense light from the brilliant sun nearly
blinded him after his imprisonment in the pitchy blackness of his cell;
but as soon as he could see clearly he at once perceived, drawn up in
single line across the quarter-deck, a body of men armed with rifles,
and he knew that this was indeed the firing-party which Villavicencio
had promised him. The skipper was nowhere in sight; but the lieutenant,
Rodriguez, stood at the end of the firing-line with his drawn sword in
his hand. Jim was piloted by his guards past the end of the firing-
party and placed with his back against a number of stout planks reared
on end, which were there for the purpose of stopping the bullets after
they had passed through the young man's body. It was only when the
lieutenant came up to him and began to bandage his eyes that Jim
recovered from the state of semi-coma into which he had been thrown by
the news of his impending execution; but the touch of the Peruvian's
hands recalled him to his senses and, flinging the man's fingers aside,
he protested vigorously against the gross injustice and inhumanity of
the proceeding.

The only answer was a short word of command from Rodriguez, in reply to
which the