utlook, Alice," said Clayton.

"You should warn the captain at once, John. Possibly the trouble may
yet be averted," she said.

"I suppose I should, but yet from purely selfish motives I am almost
prompted to 'keep a still tongue in my 'ead.' Whatever they do now they
will spare us in recognition of my stand for this fellow Black Michael,
but should they find that I had betrayed them there would be no mercy
shown us, Alice."

"You have but one duty, John, and that lies in the interest of vested
authority. If you do not warn the captain you are as much a party to
whatever follows as though you had helped to plot and carry it out with
your own head and hands."

"You do not understand, dear," replied Clayton. "It is of you I am
thinking--there lies my first duty. The captain has brought this
condition upon himself, so why then should I risk subjecting my wife to
unthinkable horrors in a probably futile attempt to save him from his
own brutal folly? You have no conception, dear, of what would follow
were this pack of cutthroats to gain control of the Fuwalda."

"Duty is duty, John, and no amount of sophistries may change it. I
would be a poor wife for an English lord were I to be responsible for
his shirking a plain duty. I realize the danger which must follow, but
I can face it with you."

"Have it as you will then, Alice," he answered, smiling. "Maybe we are
borrowing trouble. While I do not like the looks of things on board
this ship, they may not be so bad after all, for it is possible that
the 'Ancient Mariner' was but voicing the desires of his wicked old
heart rather than speaking of real facts.

"Mutiny on the high sea may have been common a hundred years ago, but
in this good year 1888 it is the least likely of happenings.

"But there goes the captain to his cabin now. If I am going to warn
him I might as well get the beastly job over for I have little stomach
to talk with the brute at all."

So saying he strolled carelessly in the direction of the companionway
through which the captain had passed, and a moment later was knocking
at his door.

"Come in," growled the deep tones of that surly officer.

And when Clayton had entered, and closed the door behind him:

"Well?"

"I have come to report the gist of a conversation I heard to-day,
because I feel that, while there may be nothing to it, it is as well
that you be forearmed. In short, the men contemplate mutiny and
murder."

"It's a l