r Edgar and Lady Emily
were completely deceived by him; and often did they, in the comparative
privacy of the saloon, deplore Joe's lamentable fall from his original
virtuous condition. On such occasions I always assumed a tone of
righteous indignation and severity, giving as free vent as possible to
the very real annoyance that the fellow's pranks frequently occasioned
me; inwardly resolving at the same time that, if he emerged with
unblemished reputation from the perplexingly contradictory _role_ he was
then enacting, I would do him the most lavish justice when the proper
time arrived.

The number of men we now had on board the barque, and the constitution
of the watches, were such that one of Joe's "tricks" at the wheel always
occurred from two to four o'clock on every alternate morning; and these
were the only opportunities when it was possible for us to exchange
confidences with any degree of safety from the possibility of discovery.
Consequently, after having had a chat with Joe, I always had to wait
forty-eight hours before I could learn what discoveries--if any--he had
made in the interim. After the last-recorded long chat that we had had
together, two such opportunities had passed without the occurrence of
anything in the forecastle of a sufficiently definite character to
furnish Joe with matter for a report; though he insisted that the
frequent brief, hurried consultations, and the increased caution of the
conspirators, convinced him that something very momentous must be
impending. Such a statement naturally reawakened all my anxiety; which
was not lessened by the fact that we now had a moon, in her second
quarter, affording a sufficient amount of light to render our
confidential communications at night almost impossible without
detection; while, to add to my embarrassment, I expected to sight the
island within the next forty hours.

I thought the time had now arrived when I ought to take the mate into my
confidence, and I did so during the progress of the following afternoon
watch; taking care that our conversation should be as brief as possible,
and that it should be conducted out of earshot of all eavesdroppers. As
I had anticipated, Forbes seemed very much disposed to make light of the
matter, and to regard it as a hallucination of Joe's; protesting that,
so far from having observed any symptoms of revolt or insubordination,
he had been simply astonished at such orderly behaviour on the part of
men w