up again, and I have no fancy to go and sleep among the men."

Accordingly, as soon as it grew dark, while the mate was looking another
way, we slipped into the cabin, and coiled ourselves up on the sofas we
had before occupied. Tired as I was, however, the heat and the
cockroaches and the thoughts of our dangerous position kept me awake,
although I tried hard to go to sleep. A lamp hung from the deck above,
but the part of the cabin where we were was in perfect shade. I had not
lain long when I saw the door of Captain Roderick's cabin open, and out
he stepped, looking round him as if trying to recover his scattered
senses. Presently he advanced across the cabin, when, by the light
which fell upon him, I saw that he held a pistol in his hand; what he
was about to do with it I could not tell. To my horror, he opened the
door of the cabin in which the lieutenant and Charley were confined.
Although he had looked unusually calm as the light fell on his
countenance, the moment I saw his movements I felt convinced that he had
some evil intention. Springing up, I grasped Harry by the arm, and
rushed towards the open door. I could see the lieutenant and Charley
standing upright close together, with their arms bound behind them
against the opposite bulkhead.

"Oh, oh!" exclaimed the captain, fixing his eyes on the lieutenant; "you
thought to capture me and hang me at your yard-arm; but the yarn's not
spun nor the bullet cast which is to take my life. I might order you on
deck and run you up to the yard-arm before five minutes are over; but I
intend to have the satisfaction of shooting you myself."

Lieutenant Hallton, unprincipled man as I believe he was, stood calm and
unmoved. Charley was endeavouring to draw his arms out of the ropes
which bound them. Twice Captain Roderick lowered his pistol as if he
had changed his mind, but still he went on taunting the unfortunate
officer. It would have been prudent in the latter to have held his
tongue, but instead he went on answering taunt for taunt, rather than
endeavouring to calm the rage of the pirate captain, which increased
till I feared every instant that he would pull the trigger.

Harry and I stood ready to spring upon him, but I saw that in doing so
we might run the risk of making him fire the pistol, and bring about the
very catastrophe we desired to prevent Charley in the meantime caught
sight of us. I made a sign to Harry to get out his knife. I knew that
t