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
w