The girl then must be the real victim; his own plight arose merely because he chanced to be there, and the villains dare not leave him alive to tell the story.
The certainty of this acted like an electric shock.

He had not felt seriously alarmed before as to his own fate.

He had only been conscious of a deep anger, a mad determination to make Hogan pay.

If the _Seminole_ was sinking, and beyond doubt this was the intention of those deserters, it was going down slowly, so slowly there would be ample time for escape.
He was not asleep, but wide awake, and far from paralyzed by the danger.
He was not the sort to give up while there was any hope left.

Surely the guard in the cabin would have departed with the others, leaving him free to act.