er did.

It came down night. It was a good night for my purpose, dark and
shadowless, with a mere sliver of a new moon in the sky. I had little
difficulty in gaining entrance to the cabin.

After the eight o'clock muster, when my watch was sent below, I slipped
around the corner of the roundhouse, where the tradesmen lived (it was
on the maindeck, between the mainmast and the after-hatch) and crouched
there in the darkness while my mates trooped forward. This roundhouse
(which was really square, of course, like most roundhouses on board
ship) was very plentifully supplied with ports. Designedly so, no
doubt, for it was the cabin's outpost. There were two portholes in its
forward wall, commanding the foredeck, and three portholes in either of
the side walls. The door to the house was in the after wall. It was
built like a fortress, and used as one.

As I lay there on the deck, pressed against the forward wall, I saw the
muzzles of shotguns sticking out of the portholes above my head. There
was no light showing in the roundhouse, but the tradesmen were in there
just the same. Aye, and prepared and alert. They were covering the
deck with guns; and I knew they would continue to cover the deck
throughout that night.

Oh, Swope was canny, as canny as he was cruel. He would provoke
mutiny, but he would run no chance of losing his ship or his life. He
was prepared. What could a few revolvers do against these entrenched
men? My shipmates' revolt could have but one end--mass murder and
defeat!

So I thought, as I lay there on the deck, watching my chance to slip
aft. Swope's plan, Swope's mutiny, I thought. Swope was the soul of
the whole vile business. His plan--and I was going to spoil it! I was
going to put a bullet in his black heart.

I might have picked him off at that very moment, if I aimed carefully.
For, as my mates' footsteps died away forward, I edged around the
corner of the roundhouse, and saw the enemy standing on the poop. The
three of them were there, both mates, with the skipper standing between
them. I picked him out of the group easily, even in the darkness, for
he was of much slighter build than either of his officers, and besides
I heard his voice.

"The rats have discovered some courage--but they'll lose it soon
enough, when they face our reception," I heard him say. "But--no
nodding to-night, Misters! Keep your eyes and ears open!"

Fitzgibbon mumbled something. The captain