's Sylvia?" The child
was lying on the bed with her fair hair scattered over the pillow, and
her tiny hands moving restlessly to and fro.

"A little better, I think, though she has been talking a good deal."

The red lips parted, and the blue eyes, brighter than ever, stared
vacantly around. The sound of her father's voice seemed to have roused
her, for she began to speak a little prayer: "God bless papa and mamma,
and God bless all on board this ship. God bless me, and make me a good
girl, for Jesus Christ's sake, our Lord. Amen."

The sound of the unconscious child's simple prayer had something awesome
in it, and John Vickers, who, not ten minutes before, would have sealed
his own death warrant unhesitatingly to preserve the safety of the
vessel, felt his eyes fill with unwonted tears. The contrast was
curious. From out the midst of that desolate ocean--in a fever-smitten
prison ship, leagues from land, surrounded by ruffians, thieves, and
murderers, the baby voice of an innocent child called confidently on
Heaven.

* * * * *

Two hours afterwards--as the Malabar, escaped from the peril which had
menaced her, plunged cheerily through the rippling water--the mutineers,
by the spokesman, Mr. James Vetch, confessed.

"They were very sorry, and hoped that their breach of discipline would
be forgiven. It was the fear of the typhus which had driven them to it.
They had no accomplices either in the prison or out of it, but they felt
it but right to say that the man who had planned the mutiny was Rufus
Dawes."

The malignant cripple had guessed from whom the information which
had led to the failure of the plot had been derived, and this was his
characteristic revenge.

CHAPTER XII. A NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH.

Extracted from the Hobart Town Courier of the 12th November, 1827:--

"The examination of the prisoners who were concerned in the attempt upon
the Malabar was concluded on Tuesday last. The four ringleaders, Dawes
Gabbett, Vetch, and Sanders, were condemned to death; but we understand
that, by the clemency of his Excellency the Governor, their sentence
has been commuted to six years at the penal settlement of Macquarie
Harbour."

END OF BOOK THE FIRST

BOOK II.--MACQUARIE HARBOUR. 1833.

CHAPTER I. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.

The south-east coast of Van Diemen's Land, from the solitary Mewstone to
the basaltic