d better not ask
questions."

They agreed that it was in all probability only a monkey which had been
seen on board, but was no longer visible; and as the captain and his
officers partook of the same dish, they had no cause to complain. They
soon learned to relish lizards and snakes well stewed with curry powder
and rice; and they came to the conclusion that a dish of snails was not
in any way to be despised. As they could take no exercise except a walk
up and down the curious little narrow cabin in which they were confined,
they both declared they were growing so fat that perhaps the pirates
would, after all, demand a higher ransom than Captain Grant would be
able or willing to pay.

"I am really afraid that we are caught in our own trap," said Jack. "I
thought that pig-tailed, pig-eyed skipper of ours, when he looked in on
us just now, smiled very complacently at our sleek skins. We must get
Jos to tell him that if we grow too fat we shall be worth very little.
There is nothing like moderation in all things."

"There is nothing like honesty and telling the truth," said Murray.

"We should have starved if we had strictly stuck to it in this case,"
answered Jack.

"No matter, we should probably have been much sooner liberated,"
answered Alick. "Depend on it, whenever a person tells an untruth he
sets a trap to catch his own feet."

"You are always right, Alick," said Jack, with honest warmth. "And
suppose all this time they have been giving us stewed babies and young
alligators to eat, how doubly punished we should be."

The junk on board which the midshipmen were prisoners was a curious
piece of marine architecture. She was flat-bottomed, flat-sided,
flat-bowed, and flat-sterned. She was of course narrower at the bow
than at the stern, where indeed she was very broad. The rudder was wide
and fixed in a hollow in the stern, to which it was hung by ropes or
hawsers, so that it could with perfect ease be lifted out of its place
and slung alongside. There was no stem, but a huge green griffin or
dragon, or monster of some sort, projected over the bows, on each side
of which were two large eyes--Chinaman's eyes in shape: and as Jos
remarked about them, "Ship no eyes, how see way?"

The sides, though flat, extended gradually outward as they rose, so that
on deck there was considerable beam. The deck was composed of loose
planks easily removed. At the poop and forecastle were a succession of
little slopi