at betraying "us" so hastily retrieved completed Blood's
understanding. The other doctor was also in the business.

They were approaching the peopled part of the mole. Quickly, but
eloquently, Blood expressed his thanks, where he knew that no thanks
were due.

"We will talk of this again, sir--to-morrow," he concluded. "You have
opened for me the gates of hope."

In that at least he tittered no more than the bare truth, and expressed
it very baldly. It was, indeed, as if a door had been suddenly flung
open to the sunlight for escape from a dark prison in which a man had
thought to spend his life.

He was in haste now to be alone, to straighten out his agitated mind
and plan coherently what was to be done. Also he must consult another.
Already he had hit upon that other. For such a voyage a navigator would
be necessary, and a navigator was ready to his hand in Jeremy Pitt. The
first thing was to take counsel with the young shipmaster, who must be
associated with him in this business if it were to be undertaken. All
that day his mind was in turmoil with this new hope, and he was sick
with impatience for night and a chance to discuss the matter with
his chosen partner. As a result Blood was betimes that evening in the
spacious stockade that enclosed the huts of the slaves together with the
big white house of the overseer, and he found an opportunity of a few
words with Pitt, unobserved by the others.

"To-night when all are asleep, come to my cabin. I have something to say
to you."

The young man stared at him, roused by Blood's pregnant tone out of the
mental lethargy into which he had of late been lapsing as a result of
the dehumanizing life he lived. Then he nodded understanding and assent,
and they moved apart.

The six months of plantation life in Barbados had made an almost tragic
mark upon the young seaman. His erstwhile bright alertness was
all departed. His face was growing vacuous, his eyes were dull and
lack-lustre, and he moved in a cringing, furtive manner, like an
over-beaten dog. He had survived the ill-nourishment, the excessive
work on the sugar plantation under a pitiless sun, the lashes of the
overseer's whip when his labours flagged, and the deadly, unrelieved
animal life to which he was condemned. But the price he was paying for
survival was the usual price. He was in danger of becoming no better
than an animal, of sinking to the level of the negroes who sometimes
toiled beside him. The man, h