Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1870-12-22
INOUOTG.
IL know'd it !" uttered Dan.

| u know d 1t J! uttered Dan.
The two men stood for moment,
and gazcd into the coffin. There was
no dead man there, but in the place
thereof there was material for the death
Of a score The coffin was filed with
gunpowder and pitch wood! Upou a
light framework in the ceu,re were ar
ranged four pistols, all cooked, and the
string entering the coffin from without
communicated with the trigger Of each,
The first movement of the Commodore
was to call for water, aud when il was
brought, he dashed three or four buck
ctstull into the internal coutrivancs and
then he brcathed moro freely.
mo, no. he uttered, as he lcaped
from the hold. "Let us 90 into the
cabin first You may follow me-"
Commodore Tucker strobe into the
cabin, walked up to the bunk where his
passenger lay, aud grasping hold Of the
female dress, he dragged its wearer out
upon the floor. There was q sharp re-
sistsnce, and the passenger drew pistol,
but it was quickly knocked away--the
gown was torn off, and a man came
forth from the remnants of calico and
linen.
The fellow was assured that his whole
plot had been discovered, and at length
he owned that it had been his plan TO
turn out in the course Of the night, and
get hold of the ball Of twine, which he
had left in convenient place he then
intended to have gone off, carefully un-
winding the string as he went along
then to have got into the boat, cut the
falls, as the boat fell into the water, he
would have pulled smartly on the twine.
"And [ thint you kpow,' he coutin-
ued, with wicked look, what would
have followed. | shouldn't have been
noticed in the fuss-I'd have got out of
the way with the boat, and you'd all
have been in the next world in short
order. And all that | can say is, that
I'm sorry | Gidn't do It,"
1t was with much difficulty that the
Commodore prevented his men from
killing the villain on the spot. He
proved to be one of the eEeny's officers,
aud he was to haze received heavy
reward if lie succeeded in destroying the
Commodore and his crew. The prisoner
was carried on deck and lashed to the
main rigging, where he was told to re-
main until the vessel got into port.
"What a horrid death that villain
meant for u.s." said Carter.
"Hc did, said Tucker, with shud'
der.
"He belongs to the same gang that's
been robbin' and burnin' the poor folks
houses on the Eastern coast" said one
of the men.
eyes" sald the Commodore, with a
nervous twitch of the muscles about his
mouth. ...
A bitter curse from the prisoner now
broke on the air, and with cleuched
fist the Commodore went below.
In the morning when Tucker came on
deck, Seguin was in sight upon the star
board, but when he looked for the pris
oner he was gone.
Garter, where's the villain l laShed
here last uight?"
"Tm sure | don't know where he is
Commodore. Perhaps he jumped over
board
The old Commodore looked stcrnly in
Carter's eyes, and he saw twinkle OF
satisfaction cleaning there. He hesi-
tated moment then he turned away
and muttcred to himself:
"Well, well, can't blame them. If
the murderous Villains gone to his death
he's only met the fate he richly deserved.
Better far be it for him, than that my
noble crew were now all in an oceans
cold grave"