the tower of a lighthouse forty feet high, but no use was made
of it at that time.

The Bellevite proceeded very slowly, sounding all the time; but at the
end of half an hour the Reindeer was at least ten miles from her, which
was practically out of sight and hearing. About this time Christy
observed that Captain Stopfoot left the pilot-house, where he had
remained from the first; but he paid no attention to him. He had three
men on the quarter-deck of the steamer, one in the pilot-house with him,
and five more in other parts of the vessel.

Christy knew the channel to the south of the lighthouse, and piloted
the steamer to a point about half a mile to the westward of the island.
He was looking through one of the forward windows of the pilot-house,
selecting a proper place to come to anchor, in accordance with the
orders of Captain Breaker. While he was so engaged he heard some sort of
a disturbance in the after part of the steamer.

"On deck there!" he called sharply; and the five men who had been
stationed in this part of the steamer stood up before him, jumping up
from the beds they had made for themselves on the cotton bales, or
rushing out from behind them. "Hopkins and White, go aft and ascertain
the cause of that disturbance," he added.

The two men promptly obeyed the order, and the naval officer directed
the other three to stand by to anchor the steamer. In a few minutes the
anchor was ready to let go. Perhaps a quarter of an hour had elapsed,
when Christy began to wonder what had become of the two men he had sent
aft to report on the disturbance.

"Linman," he called to one of the three men on the forecastle, "go aft
and see what has become of Hopkins and White."

Linman proceeded to obey the order, but had not been gone twenty
seconds, before the noise of another disturbance came to Christy's ears,
and this time it sounded very much like a scuffle. Up to this moment,
and even since Captain Stopfoot had left the pilot-house, Christy had
not suspected that anything on board was wrong. The sounds that came
from the after part of the vessel excited his suspicions, though they
did not assure him that the ship's company of the steamer were engaged
in anything like a revolt.

"Follow me, Bench and Kingman!" he shouted to the two men that remained
on the forecastle. "Strike two bells, Landers," he added to the
wheelman.

Christy had drawn the cutlass he carried in his belt, and was ready,
with the assistan