-
myself against Dominguez and the two men who formed his crew. For, come
what would, I was firmly resolved never to suffer myself to be delivered
alive into Morillo's hands; if it was my doom to die at the end of this
adventure, I would die fighting. So, while feigning to yield to the
inexorable force of circumstances, I began to meditate upon the most
promising means whereby to escape from the exceedingly unpleasant
dilemma in which I found myself involved; and after giving the whole
matter my most careful attention, I came to the conclusion that my
simplest plan would be to take--or attempt to take--the felucca from
Dominguez and his associates, and, having done so, make for the nearest
British harbour.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA.

Having come to this conclusion, the next thing was to devise a plan of
some sort; but upon attempting to do this, I soon discovered that it was
wholly impossible, so much depending upon circumstances over which I had
no control whatever, that I might have formed a dozen plans with never a
chance to carry any one of them through. The only thing, therefore, was
to await an opportunity, and be prepared to seize it the moment that it
presented itself. Perhaps the most difficult part of my task was to
preserve all through this trying time such a demeanour as would
effectually conceal from Dominguez the fact that I was alert and on the
watch for something; but I managed it somehow, by leading him to believe
that, rather than suffer torture, I had determined to provoke Morillo
into killing me outright; a plan of which Dominguez highly approved,
while expressing his doubts as to the possibility of its achievement.

In suggesting--as I find I have in the above paragraph--that I had no
plan whatever, I have perhaps conveyed a wrong impression; what I
intended the reader to understand was that I had no _finished_ scheme,
complete in all its details, to depend upon. A plan of a sort I
certainly had, but it was of the vaguest and most nebulous kind,
consisting in nothing more specific than the mere determination to seize
the felucca at the first favourable opportunity, and sail her, single-
handed, to the nearest British port; but of _how_ this was to be
accomplished I had not the most remote idea. The only point upon which
I was at all clear was that it would be inadvisable, for two reasons, to
make my attempt too early: my first reason for arriving at this
conclusion being