dyin' of typhus anyway!"

The right chord had been struck now, and with a stifled roar the prison
admitted the truth of the sentiment. "Go on, old man!" cries Jemmy Vetch
to the giant, rubbing his thin hands with eldritch glee. "They're all
right!" And then, his quick ears catching the jingle of arms, he said,
"Stand by now for the door--one rush'll do it."

It was eight o'clock and the relief guard was coming from the after
deck. The crowd of prisoners round the door held their breath to listen.
"It's all planned," says Gabbett, in a low growl. "W'en the door h'opens
we rush, and we're in among the guard afore they know where they are.
Drag 'em back into the prison, grab the h'arm-rack, and it's all over."

"They're very quiet about it," says the Crow suspiciously. "I hope it's
all right."

"Stand from the door, Miles," says Pine's voice outside, in its usual
calm accents.

The Crow was relieved. The tone was an ordinary one, and Miles was the
soldier whom Sarah Purfoy had bribed not to fire. All had gone well.

The keys clashed and turned, and the bravest of the prudent party,
who had been turning in his mind the notion of risking his life for a
pardon, to be won by rushing forward at the right moment and alarming
the guard, checked the cry that was in his throat as he saw the men
round the door draw back a little for their rush, and caught a glimpse
of the giant's bristling scalp and bared gums.

"NOW!" cries Jemmy Vetch, as the iron-plated oak swung back, and with
the guttural snarl of a charging wild boar, Gabbett hurled himself out
of the prison.

The red line of light which glowed for an instant through the doorway
was blotted out by a mass of figures. All the prison surged forward, and
before the eye could wink, five, ten, twenty, of the most desperate
were outside. It was as though a sea, breaking against a stone wall,
had found some breach through which to pour its waters. The contagion
of battle spread. Caution was forgotten; and those at the back, seeing
Jemmy Vetch raised upon the crest of that human billow which reared its
black outline against an indistinct perspective of struggling figures,
responded to his grin of encouragement by rushing furiously forward.

Suddenly a horrible roar like that of a trapped wild beast was heard.
The rushing torrent choked in the doorway, and from out the lantern glow
into which the giant had rushed, a flash broke, followed by a groan, as
the perfidious sentry fe