f-war should come at last and search the island, he and his
comrades might escape detection in such a sequestered and well-concealed
cavern. If not, they could hold out to the last and sell their lives
dearly. Already he had conveyed to it, by degrees, a considerable
supply of ammunition, some of the arms and a quantity of such provisions
as would not readily spoil with time. Among other things, he carried to
that elevated outlook Carteret's book of voyages and some other works,
which had formed the very small library of the _Bounty_, including a
Bible and a Church of England Prayer-book.

When not gazing on the horizon, expecting yet fearing the appearance of
a sail, he passed much of his time in reading.

On the evening of which we write he had beguiled some time with
Carteret, when a slight sound was heard outside the cavern.

Starting up with the nervous susceptibility induced by a guilty
conscience, he seized his musket and cocked it. As quickly he set it
down again, and smiled at his weakness. Next moment he heard a voice
shouting. It drew nearer.

"Hallo, sir! Mr Christian!" cried John Adams, stooping down at the
entrance.

"Come down, Adams, come down; there's no occasion to keep shouting up
there."

"True, sir; but do you come up. You're wanted immediately."

There was something in the man's voice which alarmed Christian.
Grasping his musket, he sprang up the ladder and stood beside his
comrade.

"Well?"

"It's--it's all right, sir," said Adams, panting with his exertions in
climbing the hill; "it's--it's a _boy_!"

Without a word of reply Christian shouldered his weapon, and hurried
down the mountain-side in the direction of home.

CHAPTER NINE.

SALLY'S CHIEF JOYS--DARK CLOUDS OVERSPREAD THE PITCAIRN SKY, AND DARKER
DEEDS ARE DONE.

Just before John Adams left the settlement for the purpose of calling
Christian, whose retreat at the mountain-top was by that time well-known
to every one, little Sally had gone, as was her wont, to enjoy herself
in her favourite playground. This was a spot close to the house of
Edward Young, where the debris of material saved from the _Bounty_ had
been deposited. It formed a bristling pile of masts, spars, planks,
cross-trees, oars, anchors, nails, copper-bolts, sails, and cordage.

No material compound could have been more dangerous to childhood, and
nothing conceivable more attractive to Sally. The way in which that
pretty little nude infant d