dent--when we first
came aboard of this here craft after you left her."

I sat silent for a great long time after this, nor could I think of one
word to say, for of all the things which my mind had forecasted, this
was the very furthest from my imaginings. So I sat staring at the pirate
captain, who, upon his part, sat gazing back again at me, answering my
look with a grin. I had been well assured that Captain Leach had stolen
the jewel, but was it possible that I had misjudged him in suspecting
that he had betrayed us to the pirates, and that they, finding him alive
upon the vessel, whence he had not had sufficient time to escape, had
thereupon instantly murthered him, as is their custom upon such
occasions? "And tell me this," said I at last, "was it through Captain
Leach's machinations that we were betrayed into your hands?"

"Why," says he, "I may tell you plain, if I had never met Captain Leach
I should never have ventured into this harbor in the face of three armed
vessels lying across the channel."

"Then I was not mistaken," said I. But I dared ask no more questions,
lest the pirate captain's suspicions should be aroused, for, from the
appearance of the despatch-box, which did not yet seem to have been
tampered with, but rather held as of no account whatever, I did not
believe that Captain Leach had betrayed the presence of the jewel to the
pirate, but rather had reserved the secret for his own advantage, which,
indeed, was the most likely supposition that could be imagined. If now I
could but by some means or other contrive to find opportunity to examine
the box, I could very speedily tell whether the lock had been forced;
which would, in my estimation, decide whether or not the jewel was still
safe and undiscovered.

Presently Ward spoke. "And how," said he, "did you come to get into such
a pickle as I found you, sir?"

I told him the main reason for my visit in as few words and with as
little circumlocution as possible; how I had entertained hopes of
procuring a promise of safety for my passengers and ship's crew, and
even possibly of obtaining some means of transportation from the place
where they now were to one of greater ease and security. Both men
listened without a word to what I said, and when I had ended Ward pursed
his mouth up in a most comical fashion, and gave a great long whistle,
half under his breath, regarding me the while with his one eye as round
as a saucer.

"And do you mean to say,