They were all killed, he thought, and the Lascars had got the vessel in
their hands.
We were doubtless supposed to be murdered, too. It must have all been
done very quickly. Adams had heard no sound from the deck above, and I
had heard none.
The crippled condition in which we were, and the darkness, rendered us
almost entirely helpless; but I managed somehow--partly on my feet,
partly on my hands and knees--to crawl up the ladder. The hatchway was
closed above me. We were prisoners.
I could from this place make out that a wild debauch was going on on the
after-deck, and I heard one of the scoundrels shrieking out a song, in a
wild, discordant voice. They had broken open the stores, and were
getting mad drunk with rum.