hear from my comrade Paolo. We have
spared you, and may yet spare you, if you do absolutely what we tell
you."

"And otherwise?"

He smiled cruelly, and his eyes danced when he answered--

"Otherwise, you would give all you possessed if I would shoot you now
as you sit; but don't let us look at it that way. You must see that
your case is utterly hopeless; you will never look again on any
civilised city, or see the face of a man you have known. For all
purposes you are as dead as though twenty feet of earth covered you. If
you would still have life, not altogether under unfavourable
conditions, you have but to ask for pen, ink, and paper--and to make
yourself one of us."

"That I will never do!"

"Oh, you say that now; but we shall give you some days to think of it.
Let me advise you to be a man of common sense, and not to run your head
against a stone wall. Believe me, we are a curious company; I don't
suppose there is a man aboard us who has not some deaths to his
account. I am wanted for a murder in Shropshire; but I am giving your
people a little trouble. Ha! ha!"

This was said with such a fearful laugh that I shrank back from the
man, who restrained himself with an effort as he rose to go; but as he
stood at the door, he said--

"We are now bound on a four-days' voyage. During these four days, you
need fear nothing. We should have paid off our score in the Atlantic,
and sent you and your fellows to join other intrusive friends of ours,
if we had not wished to get this little account of yours. So don't
disturb yourself unnecessarily until Captain Black puts the question to
you. Then, if you are foolish, you had better feed your courage. I have
seen stronger men than you who have cried out for death when we had but
put our fingers on them; and we shall do you full honour--in fact, we
shall treat you royally."

When he was gone, I thought that he had spoken with truth. To all my
friends I was as dead as though twenty feet of earth lay on my body.
What hope had I, shut in that grave of steel? What friend could hear
me, battened in that prison on the sea? Should I tell the men frankly
all I knew, and crave their mercy, or should I seek hope in the
pretence that Roderick had information which might yet be fatal to
them? I thought the position out, and this was the sum of it. These men
had a home somewhere. If I had known where that home was, and had
communicated the knowledge to Roderick, then the Governments