to-morrow!" This was the first insult
offered by the "Bloodthirsty Tommy," who had committed murder only a
short time before; but I had been watched by the fellow, with a cat-like
eye at every turn.

The full significance of his words on this occasion came up to me only
next morning, when I saw him lying on the deck with a murderous weapon
in his hand! I was not expecting a cowardly, night attack, nevertheless
I kept my gun loaded. I went to sleep this night as usual, forgetting
the unpleasant episode as soon as my head touched the pillow; but my
wife, with finer instincts, kept awake. It was well for us all that she
did so. Near midnight, my wife, who had heard the first footstep on the
poop-deck, quietly wakened me, saying, "We must get up, and look out for
ourselves! Something is going wrong on deck; the boat tackle has been
let go with a great deal of noise, and--O! don't go that way on deck. I
heard some one on the cabin steps, and heard whispering in the forward
entry."

"You must have been dreaming," I said.

"No, indeed!" said she; "I have not been asleep yet; don't go on deck by
the forward companionway; they are waiting there, I am sure, for I heard
the creaking of the loose step in the entry."

If my wife has not been dreaming, thought I, there can be no possible
doubt of a plot.

Nothing justifies a visit on the poop-deck after working-hours, except a
call to relieve sickness, or for some other emergency, and then secrecy
or stealth is non-permissible.

It may be here explained to persons not familiar with ships, that the
sailors' quarters are in the forward part of the ship where they (the
sailors) are supposed to be found after working-hours, in port, coming
never abaft the mainmast; hence the term "before the mast."

My first impulse was to step on deck in the usual way, but the earnest
entreaties of my wife awoke me to a danger that should be investigated
with caution. Arming myself, therefore, with a stout carbine repeater,
with eight ball cartridges in the magazine, I stepped on deck abaft
instead of forward, where evidently I had been expected. I stood rubbing
my eyes for a moment, inuring them to the intense darkness, when a
coarse voice roared down the forward companionway to me to come on deck.
"Why don't ye come on deck like a man, and order yer men forid?" was the
salute that I got, and was the first that I heard with my own ears, and
it was enough. To tell the whole story in a word, I k