“But the wretches below?  Surely you would not leave them to drown?”

“No; they would have to be released with the others, after the division had been made.”

“That would leave us at their mercy?”

“Yes,” I whispered, “if we waited until that time.  I do not propose taking any such chance.  Here is my plan, and it seems the only feasible one left us.  We are helpless if these men revolt, and they certainly will unless given their own way.  I have no doubt but what their decision will be practically as I have outlined.  Very well, I will acquiesce in it cheerfully enough to arouse no suspicion.  I am the only navigator on board; the only one with any knowledge even of where we are.  Not even LeVere could check up on me.  The night the vessel is to be beached Watkins and Carter, with one or two they select, will get off in a small boat, carefully provisioned, and thus make our own landing.  We’ll not worry about what fate awaits the others.”

Her eyes sought mine anxiously, full of questioning.

“You are confident of being able to accomplish this without detection?”

“Yes; we can choose the right moment.  With not men enough on deck to prevent our lowering a boat, and a dark night, the escape will not prove difficult.  No one aboard except myself will know where we are.”

“Have you considered Captain Sanchez?”

“Why no,” in surprise, “he is helpless below, badly wounded.”

“Not so badly as you suppose,” she said swiftly.  “He is able to be up and about his stateroom.  I heard him moving, and I believe the steward has told him what has occurred on board, and endeavored to bear a message from him to those men amidships.”

“You believe this?  What did you do?”

“I held my pistol to his head and locked him in the pantry.  He is there now, with the sailor you sent on guard.  That is what I came on deck to tell you.”

“But Sanchez!  You saw nothing of him?”

“No; but there was certainly movement in his room after the man Gunsaules came out.  I went over to the door and listened, but there was no way for me to lock him in.  Surely it must have been him moving, as he was alone there.”

I stood silent, my eyes first on the forward deck, and then sweeping about the horizon.  The view by then was very narrow, the gathering clouds of mist so dense as to obscure everything, leaving a mere gray trail of sea revealed, scarcely a hundred yards in extent in any direction.  I hardly perceived even this as my thought centered on this new peril.  Yet why should I hold it a peril?  The ending of it was in my hands, I need not await action, or permit him opportunity.  The warning had come in ample time.  Sanchez was still in my power, separated from his followers, incapable of doing us any serious harm.  All that was needed for me to do was to keep him in close confinement.  We were surely not far from the coast; twenty-four hours, perhaps twelve, would suffice, to make our escape from this cursed ship possible.  I must get an observation so as to know our exact position; after that the course would be figured definitely, and I would then know the time required.  My eyes again sought her face.