ust not sit."

Once more the two prisoners were lying down on their backs; the irons
prevented their reposing on their sides.

By daylight the prisoners were nearly dead with thirst, but not a drop
of water was allowed them.

The captain made his round of inspection at seven o'clock, and Allen
asked if they were to be allowed to have anything to eat or drink.

"No. You will get a rope round your necks soon, and it won't matter
whether you are hungry or not."

"But, sir, you have no right----"

"Stay, there! You are a rebel and have forfeited all right to be
considered in the matter."

Eben listened to the insulting words, and he was in such a position
that he was able to drag his iron bar right across the captain's path.

As the officer stepped back he tripped over the iron and fell sprawling
on the deck.

"Beg your pardon, captain, but I am not accustomed to move about with a
bar of iron on my leg, so couldn't tell where it was going to land."

Eben spoke so seriously that even the captain thought it might have
been an accident; so, after cursing the young Vermonter, he left the
place.

Then Eben laughed heartily.

"Forfeited all right, have we? Well, I have found one way of humbling
an Englishman."

"Eben, you ought not to have done it."

"Ought not? Why, I only regretted that we were not near enough to the
side so that he would have fallen into the water."

"Hush!"

"You are not to have anything to drink, nor anything to eat, but hang
me if I'm going to see you starve, so here, stow this into your mouth
and suck like mad."

The kind-hearted sergeant pushed a piece of hard boiled beef into
Allen's mouth.

Allen was too good a hunter not to know that the beef was prepared in
such a way that, though tasteless, it nourished, and by sucking on it
the saliva was promoted and thirst quenched.

After Eben had been served in the same way the sergeant laughed.

"I didn't give you aught to drink, nor aught to eat, but you'll get
there all the same, and I ain't broken the rule."

"If ever I get the chance to remember your kindness, my memory will
serve me."

"That's all right. I expect you'll get hanged, but blow me if I could
see a dog starve, and you're a trump anyway, though you be a rebel."

CHAPTER XXIX.

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND.

Three days after his capture, Ethan Allen heard an extraordinary noise
on the upper deck, and he knew that the _Gaspee_ was about to sail.
But its destinat