The steward had aroused from his nap, and I watched him lower the table, and spread it with a white cloth.  Now the distant clatter of dishes proved him to be in the pantry.  He could be dealt with there even to better advantage than in the cabin, and, noncombatant as he undoubtedly was, I felt it safer to place him beyond power to create any alarm.  The task confronting me was far too serious to leave our rear unguarded.  I slipped silently along the short passageway, and, watching his back closely, investigated the lock on the pantry door.  It was of the spring variety, easily set to fasten, and could not be operated from the inside.  As I pressed in the catch there was a clicking sound, which caused the negro to turn around, the whites of his eyes gleaming oddly.

“Oh, my Lordy!  I nebber heard you, Massa Craig.  By golly, sah, dis yere niggah sure thought he was shot.”

“Not yet, Louis,” I replied quietly, standing in the opening, one hand still on the latch.  “But it is just as well for you to be serious about it—­I ’ve got the weapon all right—­see,” and I pushed the revolver butt forward into his range of vision.  “I don’t mean to hurt you so long as you keep still.”

“What—­what you a-goin’ fer to do, sah?”

“Get away from this ship if I can, and you are going to help by remaining right where you are, boy.  First, what’s in that small boat, hung to davits astern—­provisions, I mean?”

His teeth chattered so he could hardly answer, but finally words came through his lips.

“Thar ‘s a breaker of fresh water, an’—­an’ a package o’ sea-biscuit, sah.  Ah—­Ah reckon that’s all.”

“Good; do you happen to know how far we are away from the main coast?”

“A a-bout thirty-five mile, sah.”

“Florida?”

“Yes, sah.”

“What is the nearest town?”

“Ah—­Ah reckon it would likely be Carlos, sah, but it don’t ’mount ter much.”

“Can you tell me the compass point?”

He scratched his head, his confidence that he was not going to be hurt returning, as I questioned him.

“Wal’, sah, I ain’t no sailor man myself—­no, sah; but de second mate he done point it out dis mohnin’ when Ah was on deck, an’ he say it lay nor’east by east, sah.  Ah members dat distinctly.”

“That will be all, Louis.  Now listen to me.  I am going to shut this door, and lock you in.  I ’ll be on board here for an hour yet, and if you utter so much as a whimper I ’ll come down here, and fill you full of lead.  Are you going to keep still?”

“Ah—­Ah sure am, sah; my Lordy!  Ah don’t want fer to be no dead niggah.”

“Well, you will be if I hear a peep out of you.”

I closed the door, testing it before turning away, smiling grimly to myself at recollection of those white eyeballs glaring at me through the gloom.  Louis was evidently not the stuff of which martyrs are made.