ously
awaiting the moment for the others to get to sleep, in order that he
might slip aft, unnoticed, to inform me of the progress of his own
particular share in our enterprise.

"Well, Harry," said I, "how do matters stand? Have you succeeded in
accomplishing all that I directed you to do?"

"Yes, sir," said he. "I was afride at first that I shouldn't get a
chaunce to go down into the fore-peak without bein' noticed; but `the
doctor' made that right by asting for somebody to fetch him up a bit
more coal. Which I offered to do for him. Once I was down in the peak,
the rest was easy enough; the arms-chist hadn't never been locked, so I
collared a couple of pair of pistols, and then scraped the coal away
from under the chist until the whole bag o' tricks fetched away and slid
down into the water, where nobody won't ever find it again. Then I had
a look at the magazine what poor Chips had knocked together. The door
was only fastened by a staple, so I soon had it open; and when I'd found
a couple o' packets of pistol-cartridges, I just hove everything else I
could lay hands on down a'ter the arms-chist. So, even though some of
'em has pistols, they won't have no ammunition for 'em--unless they
happened to have a few cartridges by 'em--which makes us all right."

"Capital!" exclaimed I. "And, now, as to the final arrangements of the
men; what are they?"

"Why, 'twas arranged that I was to be on deck, so's to keep a sort of
general heye on the brig and you; and to call all hands for'ard at
daybreak--or earlier if the sea flattens down enough to launch a boat
afore then. Then we're goin' to lower the gig that you had when you
picked us up--she bein' the most wholesomest boat of the two--and put
everything into her that we're goin' to tike with us--includin' plenty
o' grub and water. And at the last minute, when we're ready to shove
off, you and the lidy are to be set upon and battened down below, and
then we all jumps into the boat and makes sail."

I considered a while, and then said, reflectively:

"It is just questionable whether it would not, after all, be the best
plan to let the scoundrels get right away, and then launch the French
boat."

"That's no good," interrupted Harry; "the French boat is stove. Sam
thought of that last night; says he: `If we don't mind our weather heye,
that there feller aft may break his way out from below a'ter we're gone,
and get away in t'other boat.' And Dirk, he says: `T