She was dry-eyed, but dreadfully white.
"'Give me the guns,' she said quietly, 'and show me how to load them.' "I was doing so when I heard footsteps coming slowly down the companion.

A moment after, two crashing blows were struck upon the door-panel and Colliver's voice cried-- "'Trenoweth, you dog, are you hiding there?
Give me up those papers and come out.' "For answer I sent a charge of shot through the cabin door, and in an instant heard him scrambling back with all speed up the stairs.
"By this time it was about 3 a.m., and to add to the horrors of our plight the lamp suddenly went out and left us in utter darkness.
I drew Mrs.Concanen aside--after strengthening the barricade about the door--put her and the child in a corner where she would be safe if they attempted to fire through the skylight, and then sat down beside her to consider.
"If, as I suspected, the mutineers had only the revolver which they had taken from the captain, they had but one shot left, for I had already counted five, and it was not likely that Holding--who always, as I knew, carried some weapon with him--would have any loose cartridges upon him at a time when no one suspected the least danger.
"Next, as to numbers.

Excluding Captain Holding--now dead--and including the cook I reckoned that there were fourteen hands on board.

Of these, five were sick and probably at this moment barricaded in the forecastle.

One, the carpenter, was lying here dead, and from the shriek which preceded the captain's cry, another had already been accounted for by the mutineers.
"This reduced the number to eight.