hat's impossible."

"Where are we, Jack?"

"We're in an outhouse, in the hands of planters; so I made out by what I
heard them say when I got my senses back; but I've no notion of what
part o' the world we're in. Moreover, I don't care. A man with only
one leg, no head, and an exposed brain, isn't worth caring about. _I_
don't care for him--not a button."

"Oh, Jack, dear, don't speak like that--I can't stand it."

"You're lying down, ain't you?" inquired Jack.

"Yes."

"Then how d'you know whether you can stand it or not?"

I was so overcome, and, to say the truth, surprised, at my companion's
recklessness, that I could not reply. I lay motionless on the hard
ground, meditating on our forlorn situation, when my thoughts were
interrupted by the grating sound of a key turning in a lock. The door
of the hut opened, and four men entered, each bearing a torch, which
cast a brilliant glare over the hovel in which we were confined. There
was almost nothing to be seen in the place. It was quite empty. The
only peculiar thing that I observed about it was a thick post, with iron
hooks fixed in it, which rose from the centre of the floor to the
rafters, against which it was nailed. There were also a few
strange-looking implements hanging round the walls, but I could not at
first make out what these were intended for. I now perceived that Jack
and I were chained to the wall.

Going to the four corners of the apartment, the four men placed their
four torches in four stands that seemed made for the purpose, and then,
approaching us, ranged themselves in a row before us. Two of them I
recognised as being the men we had first seen in the swamp; the other
two were strangers.

"So, my bucks," began one of the former,--a hideous-looking man, whose
personal appearance was by no means improved by a closed eye, a
flattened nose, and a swelled cheek, the result of Jack's first flourish
of his wooden leg,--"so, we've got you, have we? The hounds have got
you, eh?"

"So it appears," replied Jack, in a tone of quiet contempt, as he sat on
the ground with his back leaning against the wall, his hands clasped
above his solitary knee, and his thumbs revolving round each other
slowly. "I say," continued Jack, an expression of concern crossed his
handsome countenance, "I'm afraid you're damaged, rather, about your
head-piece. Your eye seems a little out of order, and, pardon me, but
your nose is a little too flat--just a li