Sail Ho! Part 37

"Well, no," he replied, with a smile. "I'm afraid I tried to impose upon our new captain by a.s.suming to be very much concerned about poor Berriman's state; but I had another reason as well. I wanted to try and have a few words with the Dennings, whom I could hear in the next cabin."

"Yes; and did you?" I asked eagerly.

"No, I was too closely watched. I could have whispered to them through the hole made by the bullet; but Jarette was at the door all the time that he was not in the cabin watching me, and I could not say anything aloud for them to hear without his knowing what I said."

"I know what I should have done," I cried.

"What?"

"Told them what our plans were in French."

"That would have been clever," he said dryly, "for a Frenchman to hear."

"How absurd!" I said. "Well then, in German."

"Equally absurd, Dale. I hardly know a word."

"Well then, in Latin."

"My studies in Caesar and Horace never gave me the power to be conversational, Dale," he replied; and soon after, as it was now getting late, and from the sounds we heard forward it was evident that the crew were enjoying themselves, Mr Frewen proposed that we should make our first start at cutting the board.

Word was pa.s.sed through the opening to Mr Preddle, who was all eagerness to begin, and asked for one of the little saws, so that he might work at the top of the board while we cut at the bottom; but Mr Frewen promptly decided that one of the instruments would make quite enough noise, and told him that he must understand that our task was one probably of days, for everything must be done slowly and carefully, and in a way that would leave no traces behind.

"Very well," said Mr Preddle, almost petulantly, "you know best; but I am very, very anxious to get out of this wretched cabin."

"So are we," said Mr Frewen. "Help us, then, by keeping guard by your door, and at the slightest sound outside giving us the alarm."

"Yes, yes; of course," he said eagerly; and directly after, in the darkness, I heard Mr Frewen open the drawer and the instrument-case, to take out the little saw which might open our prison, and cut a way into another for the scoundrelly mutineers.

"How are you going to begin?" I whispered, after listening at the door.

"Shall I bore some holes first to make a way in for the saw?"

"They will not be necessary," he replied. "I can manage to cut a way across the last board but one."

"Why not the last?" I asked.

"Not enough room to work. I shall try to cut in a sloping way to splay the board if I can, so that it will fit better when we put it back--if we get one out. Hush!--don't talk."

I stood close by him, ready to help in any way he required, and expected that when he grew tired he would ask me to take his place, so that no time might be lost.

We had one advantage that I have not mentioned, and it was this. We were of course locked in, but there was a bolt on the door, so that we could secure ourselves on the inside from any sudden interruption; and by keeping the door fastened, there would be time to hide the saw and brush away the dust before any one who came was admitted.

My position was facing the little round window of the cabin as Mr Frewen made the first start toward obtaining our freedom; and as the saw began to bite at the wood with a sound like that which would be made by a gnawing mouse, I stood gazing out at the beauty of the grand tropic night. It was very dark, but it was a transparent darkness, with the sky within reach of my vision thickly spangled with stars, which were so brightly reflected in the calm sea through which we were gliding gently, that there were moments when I could hardly tell where the sky ended and the sea began.

Then faintly and steadily rasp, rasp, rasp went the saw, with so little noise that it did not seem likely that any one out in the saloon would hear it; and though at the first cut or two my heart began to beat with dread, a few minutes later it was throbbing with exultation.

For every gnaw of that little keen-toothed instrument sent a thrill of hope through me; and I did not stop to consider what we were to do, or what were our probabilities of success when we reached the saloon, for it seemed to me then that the rest would come. And on it went, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw at the soft grain of the pine-wood board, very slowly, but very surely, I knew; and I was just going to whisper to Mr Frewen, and ask him whether he would like me to take a turn, when the sawing stopped.

"Only for a few minutes' breath," he whispered.

"Shall I take a turn?"

"When we cut the bottom one. I am taller and stronger, and can get at this better than you."

Then he began again, and I gazed through the cabin-window, and listened both to his working on the thick board, and for any sound which might indicate that a sentry had taken alarm.

But all was silent; and comforting myself with the belief that if the noise was heard it might be taken for the gnawing of a rat, I listened and watched the stars.

At last I was in such a state of nervous excitement that I was on the point of begging my companion, to let me take a turn, when from being so intensely hot I suddenly turned speechless and cold. For it suddenly occurred to me that the stars were blotted out, and that the night was blacker.

"A cloud," I said to myself at first, but even as I thought that, I felt that it could not be; and at last I was lifting my hand to touch Mr Frewen, and draw his attention to the strange phenomenon, when the sawing suddenly ceased. My companion drew a long breath; and at the same moment, as I felt drawn toward the window by some strange attraction, to try and make out why it was so dark, there was the sound of another deep breath, and I felt it hot and strange right in my face, as in a hoa.r.s.e whisper some one said--

"How are you getting on?"

CHAPTER TWENTY.

For a few moments I could not utter a word in that black darkness. I heard Mr Frewen give a sudden start and his elbow jar against the part.i.tion, but he too was silent, save that I could hear his hurried breathing.

Then some one spoke again--

"Can't you hear me there? I says, how are you getting on?"

"Bob Hampton!" I cried excitedly.

"Pst! Steady, my lad. Bob Hampton it is. But don't shout, or some 'un 'll hear you, and 'll come along the deck overhead and cut me adrift."

"But what are you doing there?"

"Hanging on to a bit o' line made fast to a belaying-pin."

"But why? What do you want, sir?"

"Will yer keep quiet, my lad?" whispered the man, excitedly. "I don't want to hear old Jarette sawing through this rope. What do I want?

Come, I like that, arter risking all this here to get a word with you."

"Go back to your friends, you scoundrel," whispered Mr Frewen; "you have come to spy upon us!"

"Wheer's my lantern, then? Man can't spy a night like this, when it's as black as inside a water-cask in a ship's hold."

"Mr Frewen is right," I said. "Go back to your friends."

"Arn't got none forrard, leastwise only two; I've come to say 'how de do.'"

"Don't trust him, Mr Frewen, he's a traitor," I whispered; only Hampton evidently heard.

"Come, I like that, Mr Dale, sir. But I say, how could you be so easily took in? Theer was nothing else for a man to do but to go with the bad beggars, and when I seemed to jyne 'em, why of course Neb Dumlow and old Barney joined at once."