made great wealth in the sugar
trade, and did not disdain to add to it by selling flesh and blood.

My imagination racked with this fear, I lay sleepless, save for
brief intervals of restless dozing. Soon after dawn I heard
movements about the ship, and by and by some of the sailors came
and looked at me, making all manner of jests in language fouler
than I had ever heard. The features of one of them seemed familiar
to me, though at first I could not recall place or time when I had
seen him before. But after a while, as I watched him, I recognized
him in spite of some change in his garb: it was the lodger whom
Mistress Perry had wished to place in my room.

My kidnapping was then, I thought, a carefully arranged plan, and I
remembered that before leaving the house I had told Mistress Perry
in the man's hearing where I was going, and that I might return
somewhat late. He had doubtless lodged there to spy on me, and I
was sore tempted to speak to the fellow and ask him how much he had
got for the dirty job.

But an hour or two afterwards I had fuller enlightenment as to my
plight. The master of the vessel came aboard; he had spent the
night ashore; and his foot no sooner touched the deck than he
stepped to where I lay, and ordered one of the men to loose my
bonds and stand me on my feet. And as I rose, staggering, I saw
behind him the grinning faces of Cyrus Vetch and Dick Cludde. The
meaning of it all flashed upon me; this was their revenge; and the
knowledge heated me to such a fury that I leapt forward and, before
I could be stopped, dealt Vetch a buffet that sent him spinning
against the foremast. Cludde, ever chicken-hearted, turned pale,
expecting a like handling, but he was spared, for the master cried
to his men to seize me, and I was in a minute again pinioned and
laid where I had been before.

"Hot as pepper," says the master, with a grin to Vetch.

"Yes," I cried, with an impetuous rage I could not check, "and
'twill be hot for you some day. You've no right to bring me here
against my will, and I demand to be set free."

"Too-rol-loo-rol!" hummed the master, smirking again. "What a
bantam cock have ye brought me here, Mr. Cludde?"

"He was a desperate fellow at school, Captain," said Cludde. "Why,
when he was only eleven he pretty nearly murdered my friend Vetch
here."

"Split my snatch block, you don't say so! We shall have to watch
the weather with him aboard."

"D'you hear?" I cried, incensed be