e of drunken
admiration, then looked at the glass in his hand, hiccuped with much
solemnity thrice, and, as though struck with a sudden sense of duty
unfulfilled, swallowed the contents at a gulp. The effect was almost
instantaneous. He dropped the tumbler, lurched towards the woman at the
door, and then making a half-turn in accordance with the motion of the
vessel, fell into his bunk, and snored like a grampus.

Sarah Purfoy watched him for a few minutes, and then having blown out
the light, stepped out of the cabin, and closed the door behind her. The
dusky gloom which had held the deck on the previous night enveloped all
forward of the main-mast. A lantern swung in the forecastle, and swayed
with the motion of the ship. The light at the prison door threw a glow
through the open hatch, and in the cuddy, at her right hand, the usual
row of oil-lamps burned. She looked mechanically for Vickers, who was
ordinarily there at that hour, but the cuddy was empty. So much the
better, she thought, as she drew her dark cloak around her, and tapped
at Frere's door. As she did so, a strange pain shot through her temples,
and her knees trembled. With a strong effort she dispelled the dizziness
that had almost overpowered her, and held herself erect. It would never
do to break down now.

The door opened, and Maurice Frere drew her into the cabin. "So you have
come?" said he.

"You see I have. But, oh! if I should be seen!"

"Seen? Nonsense! Who is to see you?"

"Captain Vickers, Doctor Pine, anybody."

"Not they. Besides, they've gone off down to Pine's cabin since dinner.
They're all right."

Gone off to Pine's cabin! The intelligence struck her with dismay.
What was the cause of such an unusual proceeding? Surely they did not
suspect! "What do they want there?" she asked.

Maurice Frere was not in the humour to argue questions of probability.
"Who knows? I don't. Confound 'em," he added, "what does it matter to
us? We don't want them, do we, Sarah?"

She seemed to be listening for something, and did not reply. Her nervous
system was wound up to the highest pitch of excitement. The success of
the plot depended on the next five minutes.

"What are you staring at? Look at me, can't you? What eyes you have! And
what hair!"

At that instant the report of a musket-shot broke the silence. The
mutiny had begun!

The sound awoke the soldier to a sense of his duty. He sprang to his
feet, and disengaging the arms that clung