The camp being in complete darkness, Dick took his station just inside
the tent-flap and, with the aid of his night-glass, maintained a close
watch upon the barque. Hitherto there had been something very much in
the nature of a carouse carried on aboard her every night since her
arrival, the revel usually lasting up until nearly midnight. But on
this particular night there was a difference, the singing and shouting
coming to an end before four bells, or ten o'clock, a circumstance that
further confirmed Dick in his impression that the mutineers meditated
some step of a more or less decisive character. Yet when, by the
carefully screened lamp in the tent, he consulted his watch and found
that the hour of midnight was already past, he had entirely failed to
detect any sign of life or movement on board the _Minerva_.