of his own sight. How could
this Maltese boy have discovered that the pretended statue was a human
corpse? As I pondered over the question, my suspicions fixed themselves
on Monkton's servant, who spoke Italian fluently, and whom I knew to
be an incorrigible gossip. The man denied it when I charged him with
betraying us, but I have never believed his denial to this day.

"The little imp won't say where he picked up this notion of his about
the dead body," continued the captain. "It's not my place to pry into
secrets; but I advise you to call the crew aft, and contradict the boy,
whether he speaks the truth or not. The men are a parcel of fools who
believe in ghosts, and all the rest of it. Some of them say they would
never have signed our articles if they had known they were going to sail
with a dead man; others only grumble; but I'm afraid we shall have
some trouble with them all, in case of rough weather, unless the boy is
contradicted by you or the other gentleman. The men say that if either
you or your friend tell them on your words of honor that the Maltese is
a liar, they will hand him up to be rope's-ended accordingly; but that
if you won't, they have made up their minds to believe the boy."

Here the captain paused and awaited my answer. I could give him none. I
felt hopeless under our desperate emergency. To get the boy punished
by giving my word of honor to support a direct falsehood was not to be
thought of even for a moment. What other means of extrication from this
miserable dilemma remained? None that I could think of. I thanked the
captain for his attention to our interests, told him I would take time
to consider what course I should pursue, and begged that he would say
nothing to my friend about the discovery he had made. He promised to be
silent, sulkily enough, and walked away from me.

We had expected the breeze to spring up with the morning, but no breeze
came. As it wore on toward noon the atmosphere became insufferably
sultry, and the sea looked as smooth as glass. I saw the captain's eye
turn often and anxiously to windward. Far away in that direction, and
alone in the blue heaven, I observed a little black cloud, and asked if
it would bring us any wind.

"More than we want," the captain replied, shortly; and then, to my
astonishment, ordered the crew aloft to take in sail. The execution of
this maneuver showed but too plainly the temper of the men; they did
their work sulkily and slowly, grumb