"No, sir."
"Very good; I'll have the lights going in my cabin and the curtains drawn over the scuttles and gallery door. Keep an eye on Taylor without being observed, and when he makes for the stern-walk inform me."
Shortly after midnight word was brought that the scientist had lowered himself on to the stern gallery; and Captain Brookes, Gerald, Stockton, and the officer of the watch crept cautiously aft so that they could hear the traitor's movements.
The night was pitch dark. All the deck lamps were screened, save the navigation lights, which were invisible from the quarter-deck. The Olive Branch was still maintaining a steady ten knots, her wake showing a path of faint phosphorescence till it was interrupted by the hull of the German tramp a cable's length astern.
After a quarter of an hour's vigil the watchers were rewarded by the sound of a sullen splash, and a dark object, outlined in a spray of dim light, veered slowly astern.
"Has he jumped overboard?" whispered Jack Stockton.
"Hist! No, he's slung the life-buoy overboard. There's a line bent on to it."
"You're right," remarked Captain Brookes, as he watched the towed craft through a pair of night-glasses. "They've brought the buoy over the side."
Suddenly the canopy over the stern-walk vibrated violently. The watchers instantly drew back and laid themselves flat on the deck. The next instant the dark outline of a man appeared above the metal covering of the stern-walk. It was Schneider.
The man was active in spite of his obvious cowardice, for with the utmost dispatch he passed the heavy snatch-block over the hempen cable that connected the two vessels and closed its hinged side.