"I am, Phil. You needn't have any doubts of me. The passengers didn't turn in till ten o'clock. They have been drinking and playing cards."
"Are they asleep?"
"I reckon they are; they snore, at any rate. They were both tight, and only quit their game when the liquor had made them so sleepy they didn't know a jack from an ace."
"How's the captain?"
"Drunk as an owl. I gave him a whole tumblerful of whiskey at two bells, and he won't know anything till morning."
"How is it on deck?"
"The second mate is on the watch, of course. It is almost calm, and Waterford was afraid of that steamer we saw to-day. I heard him tell the second mate to keep two men on the cross-trees, with an eye to windward. He made him send Gorro and Martino up, for he wouldn't trust any other men in the watch."
"Good! That will save us the trouble of knocking them on the head, which we don't want to do," I replied, as Palmer untied the cords which fastened me to the stanchion.
In a moment more I was free, and the steward handed me one of the revolvers.
"Take this; you may want it," said he. "It isn't worth while to be too nice in a scrape of this kind. The mate or those Spaniards would murder any of us, if it was necessary, as easy as they would turn a hand."