n prying it entirely off; and getting it through the aperture,
discovered, to my exceeding joy, that there were no boards on the
opposite side--in other words, that the top was wanting, it being the
bottom through which I had forced my way. I now met with no important
difficulty in proceeding along the line until I finally reached the
nail. With a beating heart I stood erect, and with a gentle touch
pressed against the cover of the trap. It did not rise as soon as I
had expected, and I pressed it with somewhat more determination,
still dreading lest some other person than Augustus might be in his
state-room. The door, however, to my astonishment, remained steady, and
I became somewhat uneasy, for I knew that it had formerly required
but little or no effort to remove it. I pushed it strongly--it was
nevertheless firm: with all my strength--it still did not give way: with
rage, with fury, with despair--it set at defiance my utmost efforts; and
it was evident, from the unyielding nature of the resistance, that the
hole had either been discovered and effectually nailed up, or that some
immense weight had been placed upon it, which it was useless to think of
removing.

My sensations were those of extreme horror and dismay. In vain I
attempted to reason on the probable cause of my being thus entombed. I
could summon up no connected chain of reflection, and, sinking on the
floor, gave way, unresistingly, to the most gloomy imaginings, in
which the dreadful deaths of thirst, famine, suffocation, and premature
interment crowded upon me as the prominent disasters to be encountered.
At length there returned to me some portion of presence of mind. I
arose, and felt with my fingers for the seams or cracks of the aperture.
Having found them, I examined them closely to ascertain if they emitted
any light from the state-room; but none was visible. I then forced the
blade of my pen-knife through them, until I met with some hard obstacle.
Scraping against it, I discovered it to be a solid mass of iron, which,
from its peculiar wavy feel as I passed the blade along it, I concluded
to be a chain-cable. The only course now left me was to retrace my
way to the box, and there either yield to my sad fate, or try so to
tranquilize my mind as to admit of my arranging some plan of escape.
I immediately set about the attempt, and succeeded, after innumerable
difficulties, in getting back. As I sank, utterly exhausted, upon the
mattress, Tiger thre