risoners, who lay
in their bunks interested witnesses of what was going on. Tom, seeing
that Sanders was preparing to ascend into the cabin, took a step
forward, sprang into the air like an antelope and alighted with both
feet on the hatch, which crashed down upon the burglar's head, knocking
him back into the store-room. The captain's heels, at the same time,
flew up very suddenly, and he sat down on the hatch, holding it in its
place. So unexpected was the movement, and so suddenly was it executed,
that it was completely successful. Sanders was stretched at full length
on the floor of the store-room, and before he could recover his feet,
Tom had thrown the bar over the hatch, and secured it with the padlock,
which lay close at hand. There were eight prisoners on board the
Sweepstakes now.

"Well, captain," exclaimed Johnny Harding, "if you are a Crusoe man, I
must say that was well done. The burglars are safe, and if Mr. Henry was
here, I know he would thank you."

The skipper sat on the hatch a long time, listening to the movements of
the robbers below, and thinking over what he had done, and finally
recovered himself sufficiently to go on deck and report the matter. The
governor could scarcely believe his ears. He complimented Tom highly for
his promptness and decision, declared that it beat any thing that had
happened in the band since he became governor, and ran down into the
cabin to satisfy himself that the captain had securely fastened the
hatch. The robbers were storming about in their narrow prison like caged
hyenas, calling upon Tom to raise the hatch at once, or they would take
a terrible revenge upon him when they got out. They threatened to sink
the vessel, to set fire to her, to shoot their revolvers through the
deck, and to do many other desperate things, but they did not succeed in
bringing any response from the Crusoe men. They were thinking about
something else. They were asking themselves what they should do with the
burglars, now that they had secured them. They could not keep them in
their prison forever, and it would be dangerous to let them out. If they
were confined during the voyage they would starve to death, and if the
Crusoe men raised the hatch to pass provisions and water down to them,
the robbers might use their revolvers. Sam could see no way out of this
new difficulty, and he heartily wished Sanders and his companion a
hundred miles from there. But he could not waste time in thinking