Hurliguerly, who observed his comrades closely, appeared less anxious. On that same evening Captain Len Guy, having reassembled his people, stated that the question should be discussed on the morrow, adding that, if it were decided in the affirmative, lots should be drawn immediately. No reply was made. It was late, and half dark outside, for at this date the sun was on the edge of the horizon, and would very soon disappear below it. I had been asleep for some hours when I was awakened by a great shouting at a short distance. I sprang up instantly and darted out of the cavern, simultaneously with the captain and West, who had also been suddenly aroused from sleep. "The boat! the boat!" cried West. The boat was no longer in its place--that place so jealously guarded by Dirk Peters. After they had pushed the boat into the sea, three men had got into it with bales and casks, while ten others strove to control the half-breed. Hearne was there, and Martin Holt also; the latter, it seemed to me, was not interfering. These wretches, then, intended to depart before the lots were drawn; they meant to forsake us. They had succeeded in surprising Dirk Peters, and they would have killed him, had he not fought hard for life. In the face of this mutiny, knowing our inferiority of numbers, and not knowing whether he might count on all the old crew, Captain Len Guy re-entered the cavern with West in order to procure arms. Hearne and his accomplices were armed. I was about to follow them when the following words arrested my steps. The half-breed, overpowered by numbers, had been knocked down, and at this moment Martin Holt, in gratitude to the man who saved his life, was rushing to his aid, but Hearne called out to him,-- "Leave the fellow alone, and come with us!" Martin Holt hesitated. "Yes, leave him alone, I say; leave Dirk Peters, the assassin of your brother, alone." "The assassin of my brother!" "Your brother, killed on board the _Grampus_--" "Killed! by Dirk Peters?" "Yes! Killed and eaten--eaten--eaten!" repeated Hearne, who pronounced the hateful words with a kind of howl. And then, at a sign from Hearne, two of his comrades seized Martin Holt and dragged him into the boat. Hearne was instantly followed by all those whom he had induced to join in this criminal deed. At that moment Dirk Peters rose from the ground, and sprang upon one of the Falklands men as he was in the act of stepping on the platform of the boat, lifted him up bodily, hurled him round his head and dashed his brains out against a rock. In an instant the half-breed fell, shot in the shoulder by a bullet from Hearne's pistol, and the boat was pushed off. Then Captain Len Guy and West came out of the cavern--the whole scene had passed in less than a minute--and ran down to the point, which they reached together with the boatswain, Hardy, Francis, and Stern. The boat, which was drawn by the current, was already some distance off, and the tide was falling rapidly.