A whole hour went past, such a silent, such a nightmare hour, and Kep knew he was alone in a sinking ship with the dead.
Poor boy! he could do nothing there but weep and pray.
But he started up presently; there was a scuffling, rasping noise overhead, and coming nearer and nearer to the companion. Now he could hear a groan, then some one staggered or half fell down the companion.
The key was turned in Kep's cabin-door, and next moment he was free.
"Thank Allah! I could not come before." It was the voice of the poor faithful Turk.
He never spoke more. He lay there dead and still in the passage.
*THE HURRICANE--CRUSOES IN GREAT SNAKE ISLAND.
*Kep stepped lightly over the body of his friend, and found his way into the saloon. He sat down there, burying his face in his hands, and thanking God for something he hardly knew what.
Then the glimmer of the candle alight in the skipper's state-room attracted his attention. It was shining through the partially open doorway, and on tiptoe fearfully he approached it.
He saw at a glance what had happened and what had been intended.
Steadily now, slowly, almost mechanically he lifted out the guttering candle.
A little flat red crust had formed on the top of the wick, and this fell off just as he entered the saloon again.
Daylight was streaming in through the skylight when Kep re-opened his eyes, and found Dolphin himself bending over him.
"Oh, it is all so terrible!" were the first words Kep uttered when Dolphin helped him on deck, and the fresh air revived him.
"There is hope though," said the steward.
"Yes, hope, friend, hope. They had locked me in forward, but I forced my way out and came aft. I thought you dead, so passed you by and entered the store-room. The mutineers had rifled this, and in doing so severed a rope and saved the ship."
"No; but I will tell you. It was, of course, by mere accident that the rope was severed, and the men could not have known what they had done; but that rope communicates with a sea-valve in the bilge--a hellish contrivance. I got down to the hold with the electric light, and when I pulled that rope the water was at once agitated as if by a huge spring beneath; when I let slack all was quiet again.
"And now, Kep, there are no living responsible beings on this ship but ourselves. For the mate----"