f. If I don't come, just look for
me at my boarding house."

I glanced quickly at him, but could see nothing wrong about his mind.
His eyes were clear and natural; his whole appearance showed him to be a
plain, blunt seaman, little disposed to invent imaginary dangers. Still,
there was in his manner, a deep melancholy which showed me that it was
not any natural disease that he dreaded, and which caused me to exclaim:

"Why, Captain, you fear death by violence, do you not?"

"Yes," he replied; "but I cannot enter into details at present. I shall
try to save myself and meet you to-morrow morning, but if I do not come,
please send my body to Connecticut, to be interred near the rest of my
family."

He then said good-day and went out, leaving me to speculate upon his
peculiar behavior, and to wonder what were the dangers which surrounded
him. I was so much pleased with his frank, manly simplicity that I was
determined to give him all the assistance in my power.

_CHAPTER II._

At nine o'clock the next morning, Captain Sumner walked into my private
office, and I immediately locked the door to avoid interruption. I
noticed that he was apparently much more contented than he had been the
evening previous; but I said nothing, preferring to have him tell his
story in his own way. He began immediately, without wasting time in
preliminaries:

"Mr. Pinkerton, I know that you are always busy, and that time is money
to you; hence, I shall be as brief as possible. In order to begin right,
I must go slightly into my family history. My father owned a farm near
Springfield, Massachusetts, where my mother brought up the family while
he was away at sea. He was as fine a seaman as ever trod a deck, and
became Captain in one of the regular lines of East India packet
companies while I was a mere child. I had one brother who died very
young, leaving me the only boy of the family. I had two sisters,
however, Lucy and Annie. My father took me to sea with him when I was
quite a boy, and he put me through such a thorough course of seamanship
and navigation that, by the time he was ready to resign his captaincy
and retire to his farm, I was promoted to the position of first mate in
the same line. This was in 1836.

"About this time my mother died, and my sisters took charge of the
domestic affairs of the farm. My older sister, Lucy, now Mrs. W. R.
Lucas, was twenty-two years old. She was a girl of great firmness of
character, and s