When we reached the deck we found the sentry on guard as usual. We accordingly walked aft, and had paced the poop two or three times before I would permit the Commander-in-Chief to unfold his tale. Then leaning upon the taffrail, and looking at the white streak of our wake, I asked him what he had discovered. "The most villainous plot, imaginable," he replied. "You will remember that Reiffenburg left the saloon before we had finished luncheon this afternoon, and that I was the first to go up on deck. You will also recall the fact that the fellow with the rifle kept close to us while we were on deck, so that it was impossible for me to tell you what I had heard. On reaching the top of the companion, I found Reiffenburg and the dark man who acts as steward, and yet who seems to be on such familiar terms with them, in close conversation beside the door." "What were they talking about?" "Even now I can only hazard a conjecture," he answered. "What I heard Reiffenburg say was this, word for word: '_Fully wound up she will run for an hour. Then will come the explosion. Sixty minutes exactly after it has been placed in the stokehole, it will blow the bottom out, and she will go down like a stone._' On hearing this the other paused for a moment, then he said: "'When do you think it will be?' "'_The day after to-morrow_,' Reiffenburg replied. '_If all goes well, and she keeps to the arrangement, she should be in sight._' When he had said this he strolled away towards the poop ladder, while the other took up his position, with his rifle, alongside the mizzen-mast, preparatory to our coming on deck." CHAPTER X For some minutes after the Commander-in-Chief had finished speaking, I stood staring down at the white whirl of water below me, wrapt in what I might term, for want of a better simile, an overwhelming bewilderment of terror. There could be no doubt that the construction he had placed upon what he had heard was a correct one. Yet it seemed beyond belief, as I reviewed it in my mind, that there could exist men in the world, so base, so callous, as to even contemplate putting such a scheme into execution. And yet, what other construction could we place upon it? "Are you quite sure that you have told it to me exactly as you heard it?" I said, trying to speak calmly. "As you are aware, the mere substitution of one word for another, or the change of a sentence, might make all the difference." "Oh no," he said, "I am absolutely certain that I have repeated the conversation word for word as I heard it. In fact, I should be prepared to stake my life upon it." "Very well. Now let us look at the matter from every point of view. You say that Reiffenburg asserted that a certain something, when fully wound up, would run for an hour. Is that not so?" The Commander-in-Chief nodded.