He nodded, and the dreary, slow way in which the rest of that day passed was terrible. It was as if the sun would never set; but Mr Frewen was right. There were two interruptions to expect--the coming of the man who would bring us our evening meal, a sort of tea-dinner-supper, and possibly a visit from Jarette to fetch Mr Frewen to see the captain. The man came with our comfortless, unsatisfactory meal, at which I grumbled, but which Mr Frewen said was far better than ordinary prison fare; and just at dark, as he had suggested, we were startled by the sudden rattling at the fastening of our door. Then Jarette appeared, and signed imperiously to Mr Frewen to follow him. My companion frowned, but he rose and followed; not to obey Jarette, as he afterwards said, but to go and attend upon the captain. I rose to go too; but as I reached the door, Jarette rudely thrust me back, so that I staggered to the cabin-window. "Non!" he ejaculated sharply; and the door was banged to and fastened before I had recovered from my surprise. "Never mind," I said to myself; "wait a bit," as I bit my lips and stood with clenched fists, thinking in my annoyance how much I should like to use them. But I consoled myself by going to Mr Frewen's drawer and opening the case and looking at the bright steel saws, and then talking in a whisper to Mr Preddle, who came to the little opening to know whether anything was the matter. I did not tell him about the saws after I had said that Mr Frewen had been fetched, but thought I would leave that for my companion to do, and then waited till he came; but he was so long that I began to be afraid he had been placed in another cabin, the mutineer chief having suddenly become suspicious of our hatching a conspiracy to escape. He came at last, though, to my very great relief, and told me that he thought Jarette, in spite of his display of bravado and carelessness, was alarmed about Captain Berriman's state, and afraid that he would die. "And is he in a dangerous state?" I asked anxiously. "No; only a little feverish, as the natural result of his wound." "That was what made you stay so long then?" I said. "Well, no," he replied, with a smile. "I'm afraid I tried to impose upon our new captain by assuming 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."