The cool draught moistened his parched gullet, and the convict made a last effort to speak.
"Sarah Purfoy--to-night--the prison--MUTINY!" The last word, almost shrieked out, in the sufferer's desperate efforts to articulate, recalled the wandering senses of John Rex.

"Hush!" he cried.

"Is that you, Jemmy?
Sarah's right.

Wait till she gives the word." "He's raving," said Vickers.
Pine caught the convict by the shoulder.

"What do you say, my man?
A mutiny of the prisoners!" With his mouth agape and his hands clenched, Rufus Dawes, incapable of further speech, made a last effort to nod assent, but his head fell upon his breast; the next moment, the flickering light, the gloomy prison, the eager face of the doctor, and the astonished face of Vickers, vanished from before his straining eyes.