itself upon my brain
the consciousness of our peril came upon me in all its strength.

Without a doubt, the first thing to do was to tell Lancelot what I knew.
It was too late now to tell the Captain. Even if he were not too far to
see and understand such signals as we might make to him to return, it
would not do to let Jensen and the rest of the crew know that we had
fathomed their treachery. So I argued the matter to myself. It was
certain that Jensen had no notion that I was any sharer in his dark
secret, for though I could read in his face his dislike, I could see
there no distrust of us. The first thing to be done was to break the bad
news to Lancelot.

I drew Lancelot aside and told him what I had seen. At first he was
amazed and incredulous; amazed because I had not warned Captain Amber
before, and incredulous because, when I explained my forgetfulness
through my fall and the hurt to my head, he would needs have it that I
imagined the whole matter. But I was so confident in my tale that I
shook his disbelief--at least, so far that he declared himself willing
to take all possible precautions.

As matters stood we seemed to be in the better case. We had
well-trained, well-armed men on our side; we had the supply of arms and
ammunition in our care and under our guard; if the sailors were more
numerous than we, they were practically unarmed. It was clear to both
Lancelot and myself that the shipwreck, which had seemed so great a
misfortune, was really the means of averting a more terrible calamity.
We could not doubt that the intention of Jensen and his accomplices had
been to seize the ship suddenly, taking us unawares when we were asleep,
cutting most of our throats, very likely, and, after seizing upon the
supply of arms, overawing such of the colonists and others as should be
unwilling to convert the noble Royal Christopher into a pirate ship.

CHAPTER XX

A BAD NIGHT

Now our Captain had not been very long gone when the fair weather proved
as fitful as a woman's mood, and the smiling skies grew sullen. That
same moaning of the wind which we had heard with such terror on the
preceding evening began to be heard again, and its sound struck a chill
into all our hearts. The evening sky waxed darker, and the water that
had been placable all day grew mutinous and mounted into waves--not very
mighty waves, indeed, but big enough to make us all fearsome for the
safety of our ship, for where the Royal Chris