eager to get the ship
back as you can possibly be."

"Very good," said the captain, who was highly gratified. "Stand by the
companion-ladder and watch all that goes on in the cabin."

Having seen the last sail sheeted home Jack obeyed the order to "lay
down from aloft," and engaged the midshipman in conversation to give the
captain a chance to gain the deck without being discovered. At the same
time he noticed that the long wished for breeze was springing up, and
that everything was beginning to draw beautifully. At this moment the
steward came up from the cabin and approached the place where they were
standing.

"You haven't had any supper, sir," said he, saluting the midshipman.
"Won't you come down and drink a cup of coffee and eat an orange?"

Jack fairly trembled while he waited for the officer's reply. He was
afraid he would decline the invitation--Jack knew he would have done so
if he had been in the midshipman's place, and that nothing short of an
overpowering force would have taken him from the deck so long as he was
prize-master of the brig. But the young officer's fears had not only
been lulled to sleep by the orderly conduct of the _Sabine's_ crew,
which led him to believe that they, like all the rest of their
countrymen, were too cowardly to show fight under any circumstances, but
he was tired and hungry, and he thought that a cup of coffee and
something good to eat would take the place of the night's sleep which he
knew he was going to lose. Accordingly he followed the steward toward
the cabin, and then Jack told himself that something was about to
happen--that this was a part of the captain's plan for seizing the
vessel. Jack had been instructed to stand at the top of the
companion-ladder and watch all that went on below, and in order that he
might carry out those instructions without attracting the midshipman's
attention, he quietly removed his shoes and stood in his stocking feet.
As he was about to start for the post that had been assigned him, he saw
an opportunity to aid the captain that was too good to be lost. Standing
within less than ten feet of him was one of the Confederate sailors. He
was leaning over the rail looking down into the water, evidently in a
brown study. He held his musket clasped in his arms in a position
something like "arms port," and Jack knew that he carried his revolver
on the right side, that the butt was entirely out of the holster, and
that there was no strap to hold t