"He ain't jined them copperheads and left us in the lurch, hey?"
inquired the American. "I didn't kinder think it on him, though he wer
sorter quiet and sly-like."

"No, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy, "Adams is a first-rate seaman and a
good officer too! He would be the last man to join a mutiny. Something
must have happened to him, I'm thinking."

"I wonder, too," said Mr Meldrum, "that my daughter Kate has not come
up before from the saloon! She must have known that something unusual
was taking place on deck from our calls for help and the report of your
pistol, Mr Lathrope?"

"I'm durned if I know! I'm all in a tangle, I guess," answered the
American; "but I'll go down and see, mister."

All this while, Mr McCarthy had been fumbling at the fastenings of the
hatchway, where the remainder of the crew were supposed to be
imprisoned; but when he and Frank Harness, who lent his assistance, had
at last got off the cover by a violent effort, not a soul appeared,
rushing up as they expected, nor was there any response to their
summons--"All hands on deck!"

What could have become of them all?

The mysterious silence below was a proof that something unforeseen had
happened!

CHAPTER TWENTY.

NOTICE TO QUIT!

The mystery, however, was soon solved.

Hardly had the strange disappearance of the crew from below been
discovered, than the whole of the missing men, with Mr Adams at their
head and Kate Meldrum bringing up the rear, rushed up the companion-
ladder on to the poop with a loud "hurrah," as if with the intention of
taking part in the contest with the band of mutineers:-- their
mortification may be imagined when they found that, as the first mate
expressed it in his happy Irish way, "they were jist in toime to be too
late, sure!"

But, had the mutineers not so rapidly abandoned the ship, the arrival of
his rescue party on the scene of action would no doubt have tended to
considerably alter the complexion of events; and the credit of
organising the force and bringing the men from such an unexpected
quarter with so great a dramatic effect had to be shared equally between
Miss Kate Meldrum and Snowball, the cook--Mr Adams being only admitted
as a partner in the scheme at the last moment.

It seems that Snowball, while in the galley about midnight, had heard
Moody talking to two or three of his especial "pals" in the port-watch;
and, thinking from his knowledge of the man that he was up to some
mischie