"Here I is," said the boy crawling out from a recess in the wall in which he slept.
"Was that you, Bill?" demanded his master.
"No; dis is me," innocently replied the darkey.
"Do you know what that noise was?" asked the captain.
"S'pose 'twas de debble comin' after massa," said the boy.
"What do you mean, you wooley-headed imp," said the captain; "don't you know that the devil likes his own color best? Away to bed, away, you rascal!"
"Well, boys," said Flint, addressing the men and trying to appear very indifferent, "we have allowed ourselves to be alarmed by a trifle that can be easily enough accounted for.
"These rocks, as you see, are full of cracks and crevices; there may be other caverns under, or about as, for all we know. The wind entering these, has no doubt caused the noise we have beard, and which to our imaginations, somewhat heated by the liquor we have been drinking, has converted into the terrible groan which has so startled us, and now that we know what it is, I may as well finish my story.
"As I was saying, a sail hove in sight. It was a vessel bound to this port. I and the boy were taken on board and arrived here in safety.
"This boy, whether from love or fear, I can hardly say, has clung to me ever since.