I could do no less than follow our host, who led us up one flight of stairs, and thence to the rear of the building. Then he opened the door of a room and stepped back a pace, that we might advance in front of him.
At the outer entrance, I led the way, and while Phil followed close at my heels, the door was slammed behind us, the clicking of iron telling that we had been locked in.
For an instant I was so bewildered as to be incapable of speech, and then I heard from the other side of the locked door a mocking voice:—
"I'll keep you two Yankees here till your ship sails, and then find you a berth aboard a British whaler; it will be a paying speculation for me, and you'll have good opportunities for seeing the world."
CHAPTER III. OLIVER BENSON'S SCHEME.
Phil Robbins and I stood gazing into each other's eyes as if incapable of speech, during at least sixty seconds after the fellow who had trapped us announced the purpose of his scheme. That we two lads, who were of no consequence whatsoever in the sight of the officers of the Essex, should have been made the victims of a plot seemed too ridiculous to be true; but yet the locked door was sufficient evidence for the most incredulous.
It was Phil who first found his tongue, and he asked sharply, as if positive I could give him a satisfactory answer:—
"What does the villain mean by locking us in here? He must think we are rare prizes!"