of forced
pleasantry, which was anything but cheerful.

"Have I though!" said the man, setting down the food on a small deal
table that stood at the head of the bedstead; "don't think it, my man;
your time's up in another two hours. Hallo! where got ye the dog?"

"It came in with me last night,--to keep me company, I fancy, which is
more than the human dogs o' this murderin' place had the civility to
do."

"If it had know'd you was a murderin' pirate," retorted the jailer, "it
would ha' thought twice before it would ha' chose _you_ for a comrade."

"Come, now," said Bumpus, in a remonstrative tone; "you don't really
b'lieve I'm a pirate, do you?"

"In coorse I do."

"Well, now, that's 'xtror'nary. Does everybody else think that too?"

"Everybody."

"An' am I _really_ goin' to be hanged?"

"Till you're dead as mutton."

"That's entertainin', ain't it, Toozle?" cried poor Bumpus, with a laugh
of desperation; for he found it utterly impossible to persuade himself
to believe in the reality of his awful position.

As he said nothing more, the jailer went away, and Bumpus, after heaving
two or three very deep sighs, attempted to partake of his meager
breakfast. The effort was a vain one. The bite stuck in his throat; so
he washed it down with a gulp of water, and, for the first time in his
life, made up his mind to go without his breakfast.

A little before twelve o'clock the door again opened, and the surly
jailer entered, bearing a halter, and accompanied by six stout men. The
irons were now removed from Bumpus's wrists, and his arms pinioned
behind his back. Being almost stupefied with amazement at his position,
he submitted without a struggle.

"I say, friends," he at last exclaimed, "would any amount of oaths took
before a maginstrate convince ye that I'm not a pirate, but a true-blue
seaman?"

"If you were to swear from this time till doomsday it would make no
difference. You admit that you were one of the Foam's crew. We now know
that the Foam and the Avenger are the same schooner. Birds of a feather
flock together. A pirate would swear anything save his life.
Come,--time's up."

Bumpus bent his head for a minute. The truth forced itself upon him now
in all its dread reality. But no unmanly terrors filled his breast at
that moment. The fear of man or of violent death was a sensation which
the seaman never knew. The feeling of the huge injustice that was about
to be done filled him with generous indi