flickering light, the gloomy prison,
the eager face of the doctor, and the astonished face of Vickers,
vanished from before his straining eyes. He saw the two men stare at
each other, in mingled incredulity and alarm, and then he was floating
down the cool brown river of his boyhood, on his way--in company with
Sarah Purfoy and Lieutenant Frere--to raise the mutiny of the Hydaspes,
that lay on the stocks in the old house at Hampstead.

CHAPTER IX. WOMAN'S WEAPONS.

The two discoverers of this awkward secret held a council of war.
Vickers was for at once calling the guard, and announcing to the
prisoners that the plot--whatever it might be--had been discovered; but
Pine, accustomed to convict ships, overruled this decision.

"You don't know these fellows as well as I do," said he. "In the first
place there may be no mutiny at all. The whole thing is, perhaps, some
absurdity of that fellow Dawes--and should we once put the notion of
attacking us into the prisoners' heads, there is no telling what they
might do."

"But the man seemed certain," said the other. "He mentioned my wife's
maid, too!"

"Suppose he did?--and, begad, I dare say he's right--I never liked the
look of the girl. To tell them that we have found them out this time
won't prevent 'em trying it again. We don't know what their scheme is
either. If it is a mutiny, half the ship's company may be in it. No,
Captain Vickers, allow me, as surgeon-superintendent, to settle our
course of action. You are aware that--"

"--That, by the King's Regulations, you are invested with full powers,"
interrupted Vickers, mindful of discipline in any extremity. "Of course,
I merely suggested--and I know nothing about the girl, except that she
brought a good character from her last mistress--a Mrs. Crofton I think
the name was. We were glad to get anybody to make a voyage like this."

"Well," says Pine, "look here. Suppose we tell these scoundrels that
their design, whatever it may be, is known. Very good. They will
profess absolute ignorance, and try again on the next opportunity,
when, perhaps, we may not know anything about it. At all events, we
are completely ignorant of the nature of the plot and the names of the
ringleaders. Let us double the sentries, and quietly get the men under
arms. Let Miss Sarah do what she pleases, and when the mutiny breaks
out, we will nip it in the bud; clap all the villains we get in irons,
and hand them over to the authoritie