, sah?"

"Yes," agreed Jack. "Lead the way."

"T'ank yo', sah; t'ank yo', sah. Follow me, sah."

Jack's mulatto guide led him down the street a little way, then around
a corner. Here a rickety old cab with a single horse attached, waited.
A gray old darkey sat on the driver's seat.

"Step right inside, sah. We'll be dere direckly. Marse Truax'll be
powahful glad see yo', sah."

"See here," demanded Jack, after they had driven several blocks at a
good speed, "Truax hasn't been getting into any drinking scrapes, has
he? Hasn't been getting himself arrested, has he?"

For young Benson had learned, from the night clerk at the hotel, that,
quiet and "dead" as Annapolis appears to the stranger, there are "tough"
places into which a seafaring stranger may find his way.

"No, sah; no, sah," protested the mulatto. "Marse Truax done got sick
right and proper."

"Why, confound it, we're leaving the town behind," cried Jack, a few
moments later, after peering out through the cab window.

"Dat's all right, sah. Dere am' nuffin' to be 'fraid oh, sah."

"Afraid?" uttered Jack, scornfully, with a side glance at the mulatto.
The submarine boy felt confident that, in a stretch of trouble, he
could thrash this guide of his in very short order.

"Ah might jess well tell yo' wheah we am gwine, sah," volunteered the
mulatto, presently.

"Yes," Benson retorted, drily. "I think you may."

"Marse Truax, sah, he done hab er powah ob trouble, sah, las' wintah,
wid rheumatiz, sah! He 'fraid he gwine cotch it again dis wintah, sah.
Now, sah, dere am some good voodoo doctahs 'roun' Annapolis, so Marse
Truax, he done gwine to see, sah, what er voodoo can promise him fo'
his rheumatiz. I'se a runnah, sah, for de smahtest ole voodoo doctah,
sah, in de whole state ob Maryland."

"Then you took Truax to a voodoo doctor tonight?" demanded Jack, almost
contemptuously.

"Yes, sah; yes, sah."

"I thought Truax had more sense than to go in for such tomfoolery," Jack
Benson retorted, bluntly.

The mulatto launched into a prompt, energetic defense of the voodoo
doctors. Young Benson had heard a good deal about these clever old
colored frauds. In spite of his contempt, the submarine boy found
himself interested. He had heard about the charms, spells, incantations
and other humbugs practised on colored dupes and on some credulous
whites by these greatest of all quacks. The voodoo methods of "healing"
are brought out of the deep