turned round and went off into a deep slumber again.

I told Mr Henley. "That is well; I will take him at his word," he
observed. "We will now have a look at the compass."

Fortunately Johnny Spratt was at the helm. He took off the top of the
binnacle, and examined it carefully in every direction.

"I thought so," he exclaimed at last, unscrewing a piece of steel which
had been secured to the west of the northern points, giving it a strong
westerly variation.

Thus, when the man at the helm, unconscious of the trick, fancied that
he was steering to the south, he was in reality steering east or
south-east. The second mate having removed the steel, charged Spratt to
say nothing about the matter. When breakfast was over, I saw Cobb come
on deck and look up at the sails. Then he strolled carelessly aft to
the compass, and in another minute he, with the same assumed look of
indifference, ascended the fore-rigging. He was some time aloft, and
when he came down he again went below to his companions. Our
difficulties were much increased by our not being able to trust Waller,
or indeed Sills and Broom. Sills, I believe, wished to be honest, but
he had no discretion. Broom, I feared, was an ill-disposed fellow,
without even a knowledge of what was right and wrong. I have met many
such persons possessed of a perfect moral blindness, who do all sorts of
wicked things, without in the slightest degree making their consciences
uncomfortable, or fancying that they are doing any harm. Mr Henley
again spoke to Dr Cuff, and was this time more successful in persuading
him that there was something wrong going forward on board. The
plotters, however, knowing that we suspected them, were on their guard,
and committed no acts to betray themselves.

Soon after our discovery that the compass had been tampered with, it
fell a dead calm. It continued all night and the following day. Mr
Henley and I never left the deck together all the time. One or the
other of us was always on the watch. At length, after sunset on the
second day, he told me to turn in. I did so, for I was nearly tired
out. I had been asleep some time, when I felt some one touch my
hammock.

"Hist, sir," whispered a voice close to my ear; "don't speak,
please--'tis only me, Tommy Bigg. They are going to do it this very
night--I've heard all about it, and I thought I'd come and tell you
first. There's some use in being little, for I was stowed away in a
c