r saw such a scared
lot in your life. Their mouths and their eyes went open, and their
swarthy faces were as white as you could wash a dirty sail. Some of
them shook so that their caps fell off, and one or two began to pray.

"As to the stock-broker, he at first seemed greatly startled; but he
recovered himself in a moment. There was nothing superstitious about
him, and he knew well enough that I was no spirit risen from the deep,
but a living man.

"'Ha, ha!' he shouted. 'Here you are, after trying to rob and cheat us,
and making believe to be dead, you water thief!--hiding safe and sound
on deck while such a row is being raised here about your death, and all
sorts of threats being made against me on account of it. Look at him, my
brave men!' said he, turning to the crew; 'look at the fellow who has
been trying to rob us! And he is the man you ought to hang to the
yard-arm!'

"Then he turned again to me. 'You are a fool of a thief, anyway. After
you had gone down under this vessel I found your box with the glass in
the bottom of it. I got down close to the water and I watched you. I saw
you going about in that big sunken ship looking after treasure, and, no
doubt, finding it; filling your pockets with gold and telling nobody. I
didn't want to kill you when I cut your air-tube, as I have told these
good sailors; but I wanted to make you stop stealing and come up, and I
did it. The treasure under this vessel belongs to us all, and you have
no right to make a secret business out of it, and keep it for yourself
and the captain. Now, my good men,' he shouted to the crew, 'there is
the fellow you ought to hang! Look at him, dressed up in fine clothes,
while you thought he was soaked and dead at the bottom of the sea! Hang
him up, I say! Then we'll get the treasure, and we'll divide it among
us fair and even.'

"This was a dangerous moment for me. The men had recovered from their
fright. They saw I was no spirit, and they believed that I had been
trying to deceive and defraud them. A good many of them drew their
knives and came toward me, the stock-broker urging them on. The captain
tried to restrain the men who were near him, but they pushed him aside.

"I now stepped forward; I pulled my great hat still further over my
face; I glared at the men before me; and I brought my capstan-bar with a
tremendous thump upon the deck.

"'Sirrah, varlets!' I roared. 'What mean ye? Stop where ye are, and if
one man of ye comes near