. "Here comes that stupid captain."

And as Frere left her, she turned, and with her eyes fixed on the
convict barricade, dropped the handkerchief she held in her hand over
the poop railing. It fell at the feet of the amorous captain, and with a
quick upward glance, that worthy fellow picked it up, and brought it to
her.

"Oh, thank you, Captain Blunt," said she, and her eyes spoke more than
her tongue.

"Did you take the laudanum?" whispered Blunt, with a twinkle in his eye.

"Some of it," said she. "I will bring you back the bottle to-night."

Blunt walked aft, humming cheerily, and saluted Frere with a slap on the
back. The two men laughed, each at his own thoughts, but their laughter
only made the surrounding gloom seem deeper than before.

Sarah Purfoy, casting her eyes toward the barricade, observed a change
in the position of the three men. They were together once more, and the
Crow, having taken off his prison cap, held it at arm's length with
one hand, while he wiped his brow with the other. Her signal had been
observed.

During all this, Rufus Dawes, removed to the hospital, was lying flat on
his back, staring at the deck above him, trying to think of something he
wanted to say.

When the sudden faintness, which was the prelude to his sickness, had
overpowered him, he remembered being torn out of his bunk by fierce
hands--remembered a vision of savage faces, and the presence of
some danger that menaced him. He remembered that, while lying on
his blankets, struggling with the coming fever, he had overheard a
conversation of vital importance to himself and to the ship, but of
the purport of that conversation he had not the least idea. In vain he
strove to remember--in vain his will, struggling with delirium, brought
back snatches and echoes of sense; they slipped from him again as fast
as caught. He was oppressed with the weight of half-recollected thought.
He knew that a terrible danger menaced him; that could he but force his
brain to reason connectedly for ten consecutive minutes, he could give
such information as would avert that danger, and save the ship. But,
lying with hot head, parched lips, and enfeebled body, he was as one
possessed--he could move nor hand nor foot.

The place where he lay was but dimly lighted. The ingenuity of Pine had
constructed a canvas blind over the port, to prevent the sun striking
into the cabin, and this blind absorbed much of the light. He could but
just see the d