ther-covered box, so
handsome and so heavy that one of the wreckers, feeling sure it
contained something valuable, brought it carefully ashore. When he
broke it open he was much disgusted to find that it contained nothing
but books. He flung it into a corner, boasting that "he had no book
larnin', and what's more, didn't want none."

Eric afterwards picked it up, and was delighted to find in it a large
assortment of interesting books. He stowed the box carefully away at
the back of his bunk, and thenceforth, when compelled to stay indoors,
was never without a book in his hands. He read over and over those
well-selected volumes, enriching his mind with their finest passages.

Yet, despite all those exertions, Eric was far from being really happy
or content. His one thought was deliverance from his strange
situation, and he could not disguise from himself how dark his future
looked. Ben, of course, could now be relied upon to the uttermost.
But while his protection availed so long as they remained upon the
island, matters would, no doubt, be different when the time came to
leave the place. Then not only Evil-Eye, but all the other wreckers,
would undoubtedly see to it that there was no fear of his becoming an
informer, and placing them in peril of the law.

As the winter wore away, they often talked about going to Boston; and
Eric gathered from their conversation that with the coming of spring
they looked for a schooner sent out by confederates to take them and
their booty home. This schooner now became the supreme object of his
concern. In it he saw his best, if not, indeed, his only hope of
deliverance. Many an evening when he seemed deep in his books he was,
in reality, with strained ears and throbbing pulses, listening to the
wreckers discussing their plans for the future. Tax his brains as he
might, he could invent no satisfactory scheme.

More than once he tried to talk with Ben about the matter. But whether
Ben did not wish to confess that he had no plan himself, or whether he
thought it best not to excite uncertain hope, he always refused to talk
about it, generally saying,--

"We'll see, my lad, we'll see. I'll do my best for ye, never you fear."

As spring drew near, signs of excitement and eager expectation became
visible among the wreckers. They spent most of the clear days upon the
highest hills, peering out across the waves in search of the schooner.
They did not know just when to expect