d, he was
hard to please, and wore nowadays a haggard look, showing clearly that
his sleep was disturbed.

"Dreams! dreams!" growled the sentry, as he took his seat again.
"Dreams and the fire-water which he has been drinking. It is said that
he and the King sit in the palace of a night, smoking and taking
fire-water. No wonder he sees and hears things which do not exist. I
have felt the same myself."

And the same conclusion must have been dawning upon the troubled mind of
the rascal standing at his door. He began to wonder whether he had
actually heard the knocking, or whether it was another of those dreadful
nightmares which had troubled him of late, in which a huge bluejacket,
with bristling beard, had stood above him waiting for the word to thrust
his cutlass to his heart. He groaned, then stretched his arms and
yawned, and turned towards the prisoner's hut. He walked a few paces in
that direction, and, seeming to change his mind and be satisfied with
the tale of the sentry, he turned about and entered the hut again. Dick
at once stole round to the door, his stool still grasped in his hand.

"I would rather have it like that," he thought. "He is awake and able
to take care of himself. He had a revolver strapped at his belt, and
therefore is armed, far better than I am. He shall have a glimpse of
me, and then--Well, it is his life or mine, and I have given him
warning."

There was no time to hesitate, and though Dick would have scorned to
strike a defenceless man, he had every excuse for making an attack upon
this rascal who had so often injured him. He hardened his heart,
therefore, and having ascertained that the guard, who had so recently
appeared, was seated near the fire some little distance away, and with
his back turned in that direction, he slipped up to the door and knocked
ever so gently.

"Again! It is a knock! I am not mistaken. Well!"

James Langdon, boiling over with indignation, and with his fiery temper
fully roused, strode to the door revolver in hand and threw it open.
Then he fell back a pace in sheer amazement, while he stood for an
instant staring at the figure barring his path. Used to the dense
darkness of the interior of the native hut, his eyes picked out the
features of his prisoner almost instantaneously. It was his turn to
gasp this time. The suddenness of the apparition took his breath away
and robbed him of his energy. Then, in a flash, he realised that this
mu