fall, with a drunken
laugh, and before he got to his feet again, whispered me to "reel down
into the cabin and seem to fall asleep upon a locker, for there would be
need of me soon." I did as I was told, and coming into the cabin, where
it was quite dark, let myself fall on the first locker. There was a man
there already: by the way he stirred and threw me off, I could not think
he was much in liquor; and yet when I had found another place, he seemed
to continue to sleep on. My heart now beat very hard, for I saw some
desperate matter was in act. Presently down came Ballantrae, lit the
lamp, looked about the cabin, nodded as if pleased, and on deck again
without a word. I peered out from between my fingers, and saw there were
three of us slumbering, or feigning to slumber, on the lockers: myself,
one Dutton, and one Grady, both resolute men. On deck the rest were got
to a pitch of revelry quite beyond the bounds of what is human; so that
no reasonable name can describe the sounds they were now making. I have
heard many a drunken bout in my time, many on board that very _Sarah_,
but never anything the least like this, which made me early suppose the
liquor had been tampered with. It was a long while before these yells
and howls died out into a sort of miserable moaning, and then to
silence; and it seemed a long while after that before Ballantrae came
down again, this time with Teach upon his heels. The latter cursed at
the sight of us three upon the lockers.

"Tut," says Ballantrae, "you might fire a pistol at their ears. You know
what stuff they have been swallowing."

There was a hatch in the cabin floor, and under that the richest part of
the booty was stored against the day of division. It fastened with a
ring and three padlocks, the keys (for greater security) being divided;
one to Teach, one to Ballantrae, and one to the mate, a man called
Hammond. Yet I was amazed to see they were now all in the one hand; and
yet more amazed (still looking through my fingers) to observe Ballantrae
and Teach bring up several packets, four of them in all, very carefully
made up, and with a loop for carriage.

"And now," says Teach, "let us be going."

"One word," says Ballantrae. "I have discovered there is another man
besides yourself who knows a private path across the swamp; and it seems
it is shorter than yours."

Teach cried out, in that case, they were undone.

"I do not know for that," says Ballantrae. "For there are s