headlong into the dark hole, but as he closed and
fastened the door he muttered, "Don' mind my leetle ways, massa. You
know I's bound to be a hyperkrite."

Having thus relieved his conscience, Peter returned to the deck, leaving
the poor prisoner to rise and, as a first consequence, to hit his head
on the beams above him.

The hole into which he had been thrust was truly a "black hole," though
neither so hot nor so deadly as that of Calcutta. Extending his arms
cautiously, he touched the side of the ship with his left hand; with the
other he felt about for some time, but reached nothing until he had
advanced a step, when his foot touched something on the floor, and he
bent down to feel it, but shrank hastily back on touching what he
perceived at once was a human form.

"Pardon me, friend, whoever you are," he said quickly, "I did not mean
to--I did not know--are you badly hurt?"

But no reply came from the wounded man--not even a groan.

A vague suspicion crossed Foster's mind. The man might be dying of his
wounds. He spoke to him again in French and Spanish, but still got no
reply! Then he listened intently for his breathing, but all was as
silent as the tomb. With an irresistible impulse, yet instinctive
shudder, he laid his hand on the man and passed it up until it reached
the face. The silence was then explained. The face was growing cold
and rigid in death.

Drawing back hastily, the poor youth shouted to those outside to let
them know what had occurred, but no one paid the least attention to him.
He was about to renew his cries more loudly, when the thought occurred
that perhaps they might attribute them to fear. This kept him quiet,
and he made up his mind to endure in silence.

If there had been a ray of light, however feeble, in the hold, he
thought his condition would have been more bearable, for then he could
have faced the lifeless clay and looked at it; but to know that it was
there, within a foot of him, without his being able to see it, or to
form any idea of what it was like, made the case terrible indeed. Of
course he drew back from it as far as the little space allowed, and
crushed himself up against the side of the vessel; but that did no good,
for the idea occurred to his excited brain that it might possibly come
to life again, rise up, and plunge against him. At times this thought
took such possession of him that he threw up his arms to defend himself
from attack, and uttered a ha