ng alongside and gaining the deck, he found that
the two convict ladies were entertaining Mr Benjamin Burnet Kelly, the
mate, with a dancing exhibition, the musical accompaniment to which was
given by Darra, the earless Malayan cook, who was seated on a tub on the
main-hatch playing a battered violin. Lying around the deck, in various
stages of drunkenness, were the male convicts and some of the crew, and
the genial Mr Kelly presided over a bucket of rum, pannikins of which
were offered to the ladies at frequent intervals by the two faithful
cup-bearers,--Ford and Evans.

Chace at once put an end to the harmony by seizing the bucket of rum and
throwing it overboard, and the drunken people about him being incapable
of offering much resistance, he put them in irons and tumbled them
below. Kelly, who was a big, truculent-looking man, then produced a
bowie knife of alarming dimensions and challenged Chace to combat, but
was quickly awed by a pistol being placed at his breast by his superior
officer. He then promised to return to his duty, provided--here he
began to weep, that--the captain did not harm Kitty Hegarty, for whom he
professed an ardent attachment.

As the _Venus_ carried despatches for the Governor of Van Diemen's Land,
Captain Chace was eager to reach his destination, Port Dalrymple, with
all speed, and therefore was in a very anxious state of mind after the
disturbance mentioned, particularly as the mate Kelly, and the convicts
on board, seemed to have some sort of secret understanding. However,
the _Venus_ arrived there safely, and Captain Chace duly delivered his
despatches to Lieutenant House, the Marine officer in charge. Feeling
sure that there was now no further danger to be apprehended, he spent
the night with an old shipmate, the captain of the schooner _Governor
Hunter_. After breakfast, accompanied by Mr House, he got into his boat
and set out for his ship. He had left instructions with the mate to get
up anchor at six o'clock and come up the river, and about seven o'clock,
as he and Mr House were being pulled towards her in the boat, they saw
that she was under weigh, and coming up.

'There's not much use in us going down, as your ship is coming up,
Chace,' said Mr House. 'Let us go ashore here in this cove and wait for
her.'

The master agreed to this, and the boat turned into a little
sandy-beached cove, where they lost sight of the ship, which, with
the light breeze then blowing, would not pa