I was as unsuspicious as a child of foul play.

We lived together and worked our daily navigation together, played at cards together, in fact were quite chums.

The three men who were supposed to be prisoners were allowed considerable liberty, and as they had, as I found out afterwards, a private stock of grog stowed away somewhere, which they occasionally produced and gave to my men, they managed to be pretty free to do as they wished.

For all that, I ordered that the three prisoners should be confined below during the night.
As the weather was very hot I always slept in a little place on deck called a bunk, a thing more like a dog-kennel than aught else I can compare it to, excepting that the hole for entrance and exit was somewhat larger than that generally used for the canine species.
I always slept with a pistol (revolvers were unknown in those days) under my pillow.

Luckily for me that I did so, as the result will show.
I had remarked (this I thought of afterwards) that the prisoner captain and some of his men had been whispering together a good deal lately; but not being in the slightest degree suspicious I thought nothing of it.
One evening I retired to my sleeping place as usual, after having passed a pleasant chatty evening with my prisoner.