So saying, Master Job entered, leaving me in the passage, but soon
returned with a disappointed air.

"The old harridan has left them below," said he, "I must go down for
them; your honour will wait here till I return."

Suiting the action to the word, honest Job immediately descended, leaving
me alone with my own reflections. Just opposite to the closet was the
door of some apartment; I leant accidentally against it; it was only a-
jar, and gave way; the ordinary consequence in such accidents, is a
certain precipitation from the centre of gravity. I am not exempt from
the general lot; and accordingly entered the room in a manner entirely
contrary to that which my natural inclination would have prompted me to
adopt. My ear was accosted by a faint voice, which proceeded from a bed
at the opposite corner; it asked, in the thieves' dialect, and in the
feeble accents of bodily weakness, who was there? I did not judge it
necessary to make any reply, but was withdrawing as gently as possible,
when my eye rested upon a table at the foot of the bed, upon which, among
two or three miscellaneous articles, were deposited a brace of pistols,
and one of those admirable swords, made according to the modern military
regulation, for the united purpose of cut and thrust. The light which
enabled me to discover the contents of the room, proceeded from a rush-
light placed in the grate; this general symptom of a valetudinarian,
together with some other little odd matters (combined with the weak voice
of the speaker), impressed me with the idea of having intruded into the
chamber of some sick member of the crew. Emboldened by this notion, and
by perceiving that the curtains were drawn closely around the bed, so
that the inmate could have optical discernment of nothing that occurred
without, I could not resist taking two soft steps to the table, and