e blind beggar that I forgot my terror of
the captain, and as I opened the parlour door, cried out the words he had
ordered in a trembling voice.

The poor captain raised his eyes, and at one look the rum went out of
him, and left him staring sober. The expression of his face was not so
much of terror as of mortal sickness. He made a movement to rise, but I
do not believe he had enough force left in his body.

"Now, Bill, sit where you are," said the beggar. "If I can't see, I can
hear a finger stirring. Business is business. Hold out your left
hand.--Boy, take his left hand by the wrist, and bring it near to my
right."

We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass something from the
hollow of the hand that held his stick into the palm of the captain's,
which closed upon it instantly.

"And now that's done," said the blind man; and at the words he suddenly
left hold of me, and, with incredible accuracy and nimbleness, skipped
out of the parlour and into the road, where, as I still stood motionless,
I could hear his stick go tap-tap-tapping into the distance.

It was some time before either I or the captain seemed to gather our
senses; but at length, and about at the same moment, I released his
wrist, which I was still holding, and he drew in his hand and looked
sharply into the palm.

"Ten o'clock!" he cried. "Six hours. We'll do them yet;" and he sprang to
his feet.

Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his throat, stood swaying
for a moment, and then, with a peculiar sound, fell from his whole height
face-foremost to the floor.

I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But haste was all in vain.
The captain had been struck dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curious
thing to understand, for I had certainly never liked the man, though of
late I had begun to pity him, but as soon as I saw that he was dead I
burst into a flood of tears. It was the second death I had known, and the
sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart.

CHAPTER IV

THE SEA CHEST

I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and
perhaps should have told her long before, and we saw ourselves at once in
a difficult and dangerous position. Some of the man's money--if he had
any--was certainly due to us; but it was not likely that our captain's
shipmates, above all the two specimens seen by me, Black Dog and the
blind beggar, would be inclined to give up their booty in payment of the