k. I had left the caulking at one end
nearly intact, so the solid piece laid back like a trap-door.

The lady and I knelt by the side of the hole and peered down into the
littered darkness. We could make out, dimly, heaps of barrels and
boxes. A damp, chill air rushed up into our faces, carrying with it
the sound of a scurrying rat, and another sound which made the lady
gasp and tremble, and caused me to grind my teeth with rage. It was a
long, drawn-out sigh, the moan of a man in agony of flesh or spirit.
It was Newman's voice. Mingling with it, and following it, came the
low, demoniac chuckle of Captain Swope.

Lying flat and craning my neck into the hole, I saw, far over on the
other side of the ship, the flicker of a lantern upon boxes. I
immediately drew back, got to my feet, and extinguished the lamp in the
gimbals. Then I snatched a blanket from the steward's bunk, and spread
it across the hole. That done, there was no danger of light or draught
betraying us to the man below.

I asked orders of the lady, and discussed ways and means with her. It
was decided at once that I should go below and effect Newman's
release--and she gave me the small key that the Chinaman had filched.
I was the stronger and more active, and could more easily make my way
about in the dark, cluttered lazaret; besides, her work lay above.
Swope was evidently pleasuring himself by viewing and taunting his
helpless prisoner; he must be drawn away from this amusement.

She could not go on deck herself, she said; Fitzgibbon was up there,
and would see her--and she was supposed to be locked in her room. But
she would send Wong on deck with a message to Mister Lynch; she would
have Lynch sing out for the captain's presence on the poop. When the
captain responded to the hail, I was to accomplish my task. I was to
bring Newman to this room. What happened then depended upon
chance--and Lynch. Newman and I must get forward, some way, and quiet
the men; Lynch would take care of Swope. She had a fine faith in the
second mate, had the lady.

I had never been in the lazaret, the task of breaking out stores having
usually fallen to the stiffs. But from foc'sle gossip I knew it was a
big storeroom, comprising the whole 'tweendeck beneath the cabin space.
The _Golden Bough_, like most clippers of her day, sometimes carried
emigrant passengers, and had need of a spacious lazaret.

The lady sketched the lay of the land for me. The hatch