mbling against
a chair on the way, and muttering imprecations at his own clumsiness as
he went. A further gurgling of liquor being poured into a glass
followed, then a deep sigh of satisfaction as the glass was emptied, the
bang of it as it was noisily replaced on the table, and finally the
man's staggering footsteps along the floor as he made his way to his own
room. Then came the kicking off of his shoes, followed by other sounds
indicative of the fact that he was undressing, a heavy creaking of the
bedstead as he flung himself upon it, and, a minute or two later, deep
snoring.

But it was still much too early for me to think of making a move, for
sounds reached me from the outside which told me that quite a number of
people were still up and about; I therefore waited, with such patience
as I could muster, until these had all ceased, and then allowed
something like another half-hour to elapse, in order to make all sure--
for this was a case where it were better to be half-an-hour late than
half-a-minute too early, and by undue haste spoil everything.

At length, however, the complete absence of all sound suggestive, of
human movement outside, and the steady, regular, resonant snore of
Pacheco in the next room, encouraged me to make my preliminary move,
which I did by rising, slowly and with infinite caution, to a sitting
position on my bed. This done, I next got off the bed altogether, not,
however, without causing the thing to give forth sundry most alarming
creaks, each of which brought my heart into my mouth. But the snoring
in the next room went on steadily, without pause or break, and two
minutes later I found myself standing, barefooted, outside my window,
ready to scramble back into the room upon the first suggestion of
danger. Nothing happened, however; and with my shoes in my hand I next
proceeded to creep very cautiously round to the front of the house.

The night was clear, with no moon, but the sky was brilliant with stars
affording even more light than I really wanted; and at length, having
peered cautiously round me and noted that the buildings were all dark,
showing that the inhabitants had retired to rest, I stole slowly,
crouching, across the open and so down to the beach. Among the boats
drawn up on the sand there was a small Norwegian boat, much used as a
dinghy, and consequently not drawn as far up on the beach as the others;
this was the craft that I was on the lookout for, and by and by I