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e of drunken admiration, then looked at the glass in his hand, hiccuped with much solemnity thrice, and, as though struck with a sudden sense of duty unfulfilled, swallowed the contents at a gulp. The effect was almost instantaneous. He dropped the tumbler, lurched towards the woman at the door, and then making a half-turn in accordance with the motion of the vessel, fell into his bunk, and snored like a grampus. Sarah Purfoy watched him for a few minutes, and then having blown out the light, stepped out of the cabin, and closed the door behind her. The dusky gloom which had held the deck on the previous night enveloped all forward of the main-mast. A lantern swung in the forecastle, and swayed with the motion of the ship. The light at the prison door threw a glow through the open hatch, and in the cuddy, at her right hand, the usual row of oil-lamps burned. She looked mechanically for Vickers, who was ordinarily there at that hour, but the cuddy was empty. So much the better, she thought, as she drew her dark cloak around her, and tapped at Frere's door. As she did so, a strange pain shot through her temples, and her knees trembled. With a strong effort she dispelled the dizziness that had almost overpowered her, and held herself erect. It would never do to break down now. The door opened, and Maurice Frere drew her into the cabin. "So you have come?" said he. "You see I have. But, oh! if I should be seen!" "Seen? Nonsense! Who is to see you?" "Captain Vickers, Doctor Pine, anybody." "Not they. Besides, they've gone off down to Pine's cabin since dinner. They're all right." Gone off to Pine's cabin! The intelligence struck her with dismay. What was the cause of such an unusual proceeding? Surely they did not suspect! "What do they want there?" she asked. Maurice Frere was not in the humour to argue questions of probability. "Who knows? I don't. Confound 'em," he added, "what does it matter to us? We don't want them, do we, Sarah?" She seemed to be listening for something, and did not reply. Her nervous system was wound up to the highest pitch of excitement. The success of the plot depended on the next five minutes. "What are you staring at? Look at me, can't you? What eyes you have! And what hair!" At that instant the report of a musket-shot broke the silence. The mutiny had begun! The sound awoke the soldier to a sense of his duty. He sprang to his feet, and disengaging the arms that clung
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