ellect comprehended that the desperate project
had failed, and that he had been betrayed. With the roar of despair
which had penetrated into the prison, he turned to fight his way back,
just in time to see the crowd in the gangway recoil from the flash of
the musket fired by Vickers. The next instant, Pine and two soldiers,
taking advantage of the momentary cessation of the press, shot the
bolts, and secured the prison.

The mutineers were caught in a trap.

The narrow space between the barracks and the barricade was choked with
struggling figures. Some twenty convicts, and half as many soldiers,
struck and stabbed at each other in the crowd. There was barely
elbow-room, and attacked and attackers fought almost without knowing
whom they struck. Gabbett tore a cutlass from a soldier, shook his
huge head, and calling on the Moocher to follow, bounded up the ladder,
desperately determined to brave the fire of the watch. The Moocher,
close at the giant's heels, flung himself upon the nearest soldier, and
grasping his wrist, struggled for the cutlass. A brawny, bull-necked
fellow next him dashed his clenched fist in the soldier's face, and the
man maddened by the blow, let go the cutlass, and drawing his pistol,
shot his new assailant through the head. It was this second shot that
had aroused Maurice Frere.

As the young lieutenant sprang out upon the deck, he saw by the position
of the guard that others had been more mindful of the safety of the ship
than he. There was, however, no time for explanation, for, as he reached
the hatchway, he was met by the ascending giant, who uttered a hideous
oath at the sight of this unexpected adversary, and, too close to strike
him, locked him in his arms. The two men were drawn together. The guard
on the quarter-deck dared not fire at the two bodies that, twined
about each other, rolled across the deck, and for a moment Mr. Frere's
cherished existence hung upon the slenderest thread imaginable.

The Moocher, spattered with the blood and brains of his unfortunate
comrade, had already set his foot upon the lowest step of the ladder,
when the cutlass was dashed from his hand by a blow from a clubbed
firelock, and he was dragged roughly backwards. As he fell upon the
deck, he saw the Crow spring out of the mass of prisoners who had been,
an instant before, struggling with the guard, and, gaining the cleared
space at the bottom of the ladder, hold up his hands, as though to
shield himself