indecent. Presiding over this ghastly revel, was a gigantic skeleton,
arrayed in what had once been a splendid theatrical dress, and grasping
in its fleshless hand a large gilt goblet; this figure was seated on a
sort of throne, made of rough boards.

These were the skeletons of those who had died in the Vaults, as well as
of those persons who, having fallen into the power of the band of
villains, had been murdered in that dungeon, by starvation or torture.
With infernal ingenuity, the Dead Man had arrayed the skeletons in
fanciful costumes, which had been plundered from the wardrobe of a
theatre; and placed them in the most absurd and indecent positions his
hellish fancy could devise. The large skeleton, which seemed to preside
over the others, was the remains of a former Captain of the band,
celebrated for his many villainies and gigantic stature.

While gazing upon this figure, Sydney distinctly saw the head, or skull,
nod at him. Astonished at this, yet doubting the evidence of his own
eyesight, he approached nearer, and held the lamp close up to it; again
it moved, so plainly as to admit of no further doubt. Our hero was not
superstitious, but the strangeness of this incident almost terrified
him, and he was about to make a rapid retreat to the other side of the
dungeon, when the mystery was explained in a manner that would have been
ludicrous under any other circumstances: a large cat leaped from the
skull, where it had taken up an abode, and scampered off, to the great
relief of Sydney, who was glad to find that the nod of the skeleton
proceeded from such a trifling cause.

On the back of each chair whereon was seated a member of the ghostly
company was written the name which he or she had borne during life.
Judges, magistrates and police officers were there, who had rendered
themselves obnoxious to the gang, in years past, by vigilance in
detecting, or severity in passing sentences upon many of its members.
These individuals had been waylaid by their ruffian enemies, and made to
die a lingering death in that dungeon; their fate was never known to
their friends, and their sudden and unaccountable removal from the
world, was chronicled in the newspapers, at the time, under the head of
_mysterious disappearance_. Ladies, whose testimony had tended to the
conviction of the band, were there; but their fate had been doubly
horrible, for previous to their imprisonment in the dungeon, they had
been dishonored by the