l-nigh
weary of my life.

I was one night standing just before the windlass, when I said something
which offended Sam Dixon, one of the men. In return he struck me a blow
on the head. I must have fallen immediately, and rolled down directly
under the windlass. Perhaps fancying that he had killed me, Dixon
walked away, without uttering anything to anybody as to what he had
done.

I probably lay there for some time in a state of unconsciousness--how
long I could not tell. When I came to myself I heard some of my
shipmates talking near me. I was about to crawl out when my own name
caught my ears.

"We have had enough of that youngster at present," said one; "he has
'peached once, and will ferret out what we're about, and 'peach again if
he has the chance. I only wish we had dropped him overboard with a shot
round his feet long ago."

It was the boatswain who spoke.

"I didn't think of the shot, as I suppose that would stop him from
coming up again, and haunting the ship," remarked old Growles; "that's
what I was afeered of."

"Why, Gregory, you're always thinking of ghosts and spirits--they
wouldn't do harm to you or any of us," remarked another fellow who was
looked upon as the chief sceptic of the crew, though it is difficult to
say what they did or did not believe, for considering their lives it
might be supposed that they were all infidels together.

They continued talking in low voices. Though I could not make out all
they said, I gathered enough to be convinced that they had some plot or
other which they intended soon to put into execution, and fearing lest I
should get an inkling of it and inform the captain, they intended to do
away with me. It was some satisfaction to discover that they had no
immediate intention of executing their plans. I might have time to warn
the officers or to make my escape.

I for some time had had an idea in my head. We carried a small boat
astern, generally called a dinghy. She could hold two or three people,
and was useful for sending away to the shore, or for lowering at sea in
calm weather when anything had to be picked up. If I could lower her
into the water during the night when off the coast of some island, I
might manage to escape to the shore before I was discovered.

What I had heard made me resolve not to delay a moment longer than could
be helped. That night nothing could be done, even should I find that
the blow had not incapacitated me from exertion.