ed himself. The case was opened and a brace of good,
serviceable revolvers withdrawn therefrom for Nicholls' use, after which
the two men leisurely partook of their evening meal. By the time that
this was finished and cleared away it was close upon eight o'clock, and
as Leslie rather anticipated the possibility of a visit from some of the
mutineers that night, and had no fancy for being taken unawares by them,
he directed Nicholls to lie down and sleep until midnight, when he would
relieve him, it being Dick's purpose that the two men should take watch
and watch through the night.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

THE RECAPTURE OF THE MINERVA.

The camp being in complete darkness, Dick took his station just inside
the tent-flap and, with the aid of his night-glass, maintained a close
watch upon the barque. Hitherto there had been something very much in
the nature of a carouse carried on aboard her every night since her
arrival, the revel usually lasting up until nearly midnight. But on
this particular night there was a difference, the singing and shouting
coming to an end before four bells, or ten o'clock, a circumstance that
further confirmed Dick in his impression that the mutineers meditated
some step of a more or less decisive character. Yet when, by the
carefully screened lamp in the tent, he consulted his watch and found
that the hour of midnight was already past, he had entirely failed to
detect any sign of life or movement on board the _Minerva_.

He now called Nicholls, and when the latter appeared he said to him--

"If you will sit here, where I have been sitting, you will be able, by
using the night-glass, to keep a very perfect watch upon the barque
without being yourself seen, and the moment that you detect anything
like the appearance of a boat coming ashore, please wake me. And be
especially careful not to light your pipe where you can be seen, as I am
particularly anxious not to scare those fellows from coming ashore.
And, in their present state of mind, I am afraid that anything which
might excite within them the suspicion that they are being watched would
suffice to scare them back to the ship again."

Then he, in his turn, stretched himself out and was presently sound
asleep.

It seemed as though he had been asleep scarcely five minutes, although
it was really more than an hour when Nicholls shook him by the shoulder
and said--

"Mr Leslie, wake up, sir, please. There's a boat of some sort comi