650 The Demon Ship. [DEC. 



belonged to the captain there rather to us seeing we had taken them 

 on board." " Yes, yes, we have sacked the captain/' observed Jack, 

 facetiously. His companion went on " His watch, rings, and clothes ; 

 and two thousand dollars of the countess's, and her jewels, amounting, 

 perhaps, to another two thousand. This might be a fine prize to a six- 

 teen-gun brig of some dozing government, but the Demon was built for 

 greater things." " I suppose, captain/' said Jack, " we go on our usual 

 plan, eh? The specie to be distributed among the ship's company, 

 and the jewels and personals to be appropriated, in a quiet way, by the 

 officers ? And, for once in a way, I hope there be no breach of discip- 

 line, Captain Vanderleer, in asking where might be deposited that secret 

 casket, containing, you and I and one or two more know what? I 

 mean that we took from the Spanish- American brig." " It is in the 

 stern-hold, beneath our feet at this moment/' answered the captain. 

 " A good one for dividing its contents," said Jack. " I'll fetch a light 

 in the twinkling of an eye." " No need," replied the captain. " I 

 warrant me I can lay my hand on it in the dark." Without the warn- 

 ing of another moment, the Demon commander was in our hold. On 

 the removal of the trap-door a faint light streamed into our prison but 

 it only fell on the part immediately under the ingress, and left the sides 

 in obscurity. I suppose it was about four in the morning. I had laid 

 Margaret down on some torn old signal flags, in that division of the 

 hold which Girod had assigned her, and had myself retired behind my 

 own bulwark of meal sacks, in order that my companion might possess, 

 for her repose, something like the freedom of a small cabin to herself. 

 I had scarcely time to glide round to the side of Margaret ere the mer- 

 ciless buccaneer descended. We almost inserted ourselves into the 

 wooden walls of our hiding-place, and literally drew down the sacks 

 upon us. The captain felt about the apartment with his hand, some- 

 times pushing it behind the sacks, and sometimes feeling under them. 

 And now he passed his arms through those which aided our conceal- 

 ment. Gracious heaven ! his hand discovered the countess's garments ; 

 he grasped them tight ; he began to drag her forward j but at this 

 moment his foot struck against the casket for which he was searching. 

 He stooped to seize it, and, as his hold on Margaret slackened, I con- 

 trived to pass towards his hand a portion of the old flag-cloth, so as to 

 impress him with the belief that it was the original object of his grasp. 

 He dragged it foward, and let it go. But he had disturbed the compact 

 adjustment of the sacks ; and as the vessel was now rolling violently in 

 a tempestuous sea, a terrible lurch laid prostrate our treacherous wall of 

 defence, and we stood full exposed, without a barrier between ourselves 

 and the ruffian commander of the Demon. To us it now seemed that 

 all was lost, and I leaned over Margaret just to afford my own bosom as 

 a slender and last defence. 



The Demon captain had gone to the light to pass his casket through 

 the trap-door. The sun was rising, and the crimson hues of dawn 

 meeting no other object in the hold save the depraved and hardened 

 countenance of our keeper, threw on its swart complexion such a ruddy 

 glow, as contrasted with the surrounding darkness gave him the 

 appearance of some foul demon, emerging from the abodes of the con- 

 demned, and*bearing on his unhallowed countenance the reflection of 

 the infernal fires he had quitted. That glow was, however, our salva- 

 tion. The captain turned with an oath to replace the fallen sacks. Any 



