he warning uttered by his
captor before leaving, the boy stole up the steps and stealthily tried the
door. It was fastened too securely for him to force it.

As he sat down again in the chair, he heard feet on the deck, and he
concluded that his master had come back to see whether all was right.

But the fellow did not touch the cabin-door; and a minute later the lad
noticed that two men were moving about, then the sounds showed that the
sail was being hoisted. He could distinguish their words as they exchanged
directions, and it was not long before the rippling water told that the
schooner was under way.

"Like enough they have started for China or the Cape of Good Hope, and I
won't see Tom again for years."

He sat still in the cabin, which was lit by a lamp suspended overhead, and
which soon became so warm from the stove and confined air, that he did
what he could to cool off the interior.

He had just finished this when he felt a draught of cold air, and looking
up, saw an ugly face peering down on him from the cabin door.

"Hello, you're down there, are you?" called out the man; "how do you like
it?"

"It's getting rather warm," answered Jim, hoping to make the best of a bad
business.

"If you find it too hot, come on deck and air yourself."

The lad accepted the invitation, and hastily ascended the few steps, his
chief object being to learn where he was.

Looking about in the gloom, he observed a ship under full sail on the
right, and a little farther off one on the left. In the former direction
he thought he discerned a faint dark line close to the water, which he
supposed showed where the shore lay.

"Then we are putting out to sea," was his conclusion, while he shivered in
the keen wind which swept over the deck.

The schooner had her mainsail and foresail up, both bellying far outward
under the impulse of the wind, while the hull keeled far over to the right
in response, and the foaming water at the bow told that she was making her
way at high speed toward her destination, wherever that might be.

As well as Jim could make out in the gloom, neither of the two men who
were managing the vessel was Hornblower.

"Where are we bound?" asked the prisoner, turning upon the one who
invited him to come out of the cabin.

"To the moon," was the unsatisfactory response.

Jim said no more, for he was afraid he might offend the fellow by pressing
his inquiries.

"I guess you'd better go below and sleep