"'Perhaps,' said the other, 'the coffin is lined with lead.'
"The trap-door was drawn up, and the lieutenant, pistol in hand, descended alone.
"'Now, my lads,' said he, addressing some invisible personages, 'we know you are here, and I call upon you to yield in the King's name—resistance is useless, the house is surrounded, and we are in force, so you had better give in without more ado.'
"No answer was returned to this exordium; but we heard the murmuring of muffled voices, as if the rapscallions were deliberating. I now descended with my lamp, followed by some of the seamen, and beheld my friends of the night before either stretched on the ground or propped up against the walls, like a lot of mummies in an Egyptian tomb.
"They were handcuffed one by one, pushed or hauled up the stairs, and then tied to one another in a line. When we had secured the whole lot of them in this way—
"'Lieutenant,' said I, winking, 'will you permit me to send a ball into that coffin?'
"'Please yourself about that, young man,' said he.
"Here the old woman recommenced howling again and called upon all the saints in the calendar to punish us for my sacrilegious design.
"'Shoot a dead body,' said I, 'where's the harm?' Besides, what is that salt there for?'
"'To keep away evil spirits,' was the reply.