which I had squeezed myself in. To my great surprise, I
found that it was closed up!

I could scarce credit my senses, and I felt again and again, passing my
hands upwards and downwards. Beyond a doubt the aperture was shut up!
My hands met resistance everywhere, coming in contact with a
perpendicular wall, which, I could tell by the "feel," was the side of
an immense box. It blocked up the interval between the butt and the
side of the ship so completely, that there was not space enough on
either side to thrust the point of my finger through.

I placed my hands to the box in hopes of being able to push it away, but
I could not move it. I laid my shoulder to it, and heaved with all the
strength of my body; I could not even _shake it_! It was a large
packing-case, no doubt filled with heavy goods. A strong man could
scarce have stirred it from the spot, and my puny strength was
altogether insufficient to move it.

After an effort I desisted from trying, and crept back along the side of
the butt, hoping I might get out by the other end; but on reaching this,
my hopes were dissipated in a moment. There was not the space of an
inch between the rim of the great cask and another similar barrel, which
filled the aperture up to the ribs of the vessel! A mouse could hardly
have squeezed itself through between.

I next felt along the top of both casks, but with like result. There
was just space in that direction to admit of passing my hand through,
and no more. A huge beam, traversing along the top, was within a few
inches of the rounded sides of the casks, and there was no aperture that
would have permitted me, small as I was, to have squeezed myself
through.

I shall leave you to fancy my feelings, when the conviction broke upon
me that I was actually shut in--imprisoned--_built up among the
merchandise_!

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

ENTOMBED ALIVE.

I could now comprehend why the night had seemed so long. There had been
light enough, but it reached me not. The great box had intercepted it.
There had been day, and I knew it not. The men had been working by day,
when I thought it was after midnight. Instead of a single night, at
least two nights and a day had passed since I crouched into my
hiding-place. No wonder I had hungered, and was thirsty--no wonder I
felt an aching in my bones. The short intervals of silence I had
observed were the hours when the crew were at their meals. The long
silence that pr