Still he did not say a word of the danger to which he was exposed, and even assumed, as soon as he had recovered from the first shock, a certain cheerfulness which he had not shown during the whole voyage, and under which he concealed his apprehensions.

“I do not want my enemy,” he said to himself, “to suspect my suspicions.”

But from that moment his suspicions never fell asleep; and every step he took was guided by most careful circumspection.  He never put one foot before the other, so to say, without first having examined the ground; he never seized a man-rope without having first tried its solidity; he had made it a law to eat and drink nothing, not even a glass of water, but what came from the officers’ table.

These perpetual precautions, these ceaseless apprehensions, were extremely repugnant to his daring temper; but he felt, that, under such circumstances, careless would be no longer courage, but simple folly.  He had engaged in a duel in which he wanted to be victorious; hence he must at least defend himself against the attack.  He felt, moreover, that he was the only protector his beloved had now; and that, if he died, she would certainly be lost.  But he also thought not only of defending himself, but of getting at the assassin, and, through him, at the infamous creature by whom he was employed, Sarah Brandon.

He therefore pursued his search quietly, slowly, but indefatigably.  Certain circumstances which he had at first forgotten, and a few points skilfully put together, gave him some hope.  He had, for instance, ascertained that none but the crews of the boats had been on shore, and that, of these, not one had been for ten minutes out of sight of the others.  Hence the pretended boatman was not a sailor on board “The Conquest.”  Nor could it have been one of the marines, as none of them had been allowed to leave the vessel.  There remained the emigrants, fifty or sixty of whom had spent the night in Saigon.

But was not the idea that one of these men might have led Daniel into the trap contradicted by the circumstances of the first attempt?  By no means; for many of the younger men among these emigrants had asked permission to help in the working of the ship in order to break the monotony of the long voyage.  After careful inquiry, Daniel ascertained even that four of them had been with the sailors on the yards from which the heavy block fell that came so near ending his life.

Which were they?  This he could not ascertain.

Still the result was enough for Daniel to make his life more endurable.  He could breathe again on board ship; he went and came in all safety, since he was sure that the guilty man was not one of the crew.  He even felt real and great relief at the thought that his would-be assassin was not to be looked for among these brave and frank sailors; none of them, at least, had been bribed with gold to commit a murder.  Moreover, the limits of his investigations had now narrowed down in such a manner, that he might begin to hope for success in the end.