She had come on board armed with a plot for his release, and this plot was about to be put in execution.

He had heard of the atrocities perpetrated by successful mutineers.

Story after story of such nature had often made the prison resound with horrible mirth.

He knew the characters of the three ruffians who, separated from him by but two inches of planking, jested and laughed over their plans of freedom and vengeance.

Though he conversed but little with his companions, these men were his berth mates, and he could not but know how they would proceed to wreak their vengeance on their gaolers.
True, that the head of this formidable chimera--John Rex, the forger--was absent, but the two hands, or rather claws--the burglar and the prison-breaker--were present, and the slimly-made, effeminate Crow, if he had not the brains of the master, yet made up for his flaccid muscles and nerveless frame by a cat-like cunning, and a spirit of devilish volatility that nothing could subdue.