ee that you are longing to get away. You will
be careful, though, will you not? and not run any unnecessary risks?"

I took the hand that was so frankly extended to me, and gave it a hearty
squeeze; gazed for an instant into the eyes that dwelt so anxiously upon
mine; and, immeasurably cheered and encouraged by the interest and
sympathy that I read there, turned away quickly and stepped briskly out
toward the mouth of the creek once more.

The time I had taken to walk to and from the basin appeared to have
sufficed the carousers to drink themselves well on toward a condition of
oblivion; for when I again reached the beach opposite the ship, the
singing had subsided into an occasional maudlin howl that, in its turn,
soon afterwards yielded to the stupefying effects of the liquor, and a
dead silence fell upon the ship.

I did not wait, however, for this final stage of insensibility to arrive
among the mutineers; but kicked off my shoes, and laying them, with my
hat and jacket, upon the sand, immediately upon my arrival at my former
post of observation, at once entered the water and started to swim with
long, steady, deliberate strokes toward the ship. The water was
perfectly calm and smooth, as well as deliciously warm; so that, despite
the leisurely character of my exertions, I made excellent progress, and,
in a shorter time than I had thought possible, found myself within the
deep shadow of the ship's hull. Everything was by this time as silent
as death on board, save for the slight jerk of the wheel-chains and the
sob of the water along the bends and about the rudder as the ship swung
gently upon the long, low ground-swell, the edge of which just caught
her as it crept up from the westward across the mouth of the small
estuary where she lay at anchor. So still and silent was the breathless
night that the volume of sound raised by the insects on shore rang in my
ears almost as distinctly out here as it had done when I stood upon the
beach; it was, however, so far mellowed and softened by the intervening
distance that it was possible to hear other sounds distinctly _through_
it, even when they were so faint as the slight, almost imperceptible
creak of the yard-parrels aloft, and the light _flap_ of a coiled-up
rope striking against the bulwarks with the slight, easy roll of the
ship. I was therefore particularly careful not to make the faintest
splash, as I drew up alongside, lest the unaccustomed sound should reac