CHAPTER XXI.
A TERRIBLE DOOM FOR AN INNOCENT MAN.
"So, you're to be hanged for a pirate, Jo Bumpus, ye are.

That's pleasant to think of, anyhow." Such was the remark which our stout seaman addressed to himself when he awoke on the second morning after the departure of the Wasp.

If the thought was really as pleasant as he asserted it to be, his visage must have been a bad index to the state of his mind; for at that particular moment Joe looked uncommonly miserable.
The wonted good-humored expression of his countenance had given place to a gaze of stereotyped surprise and solemnity.

Indeed, Bumpus seemed to have parted with much of his reason, and all of his philosophy; for he could say nothing else during at least half an hour after awaking except the phrase, "So you're going to be hanged for a pirate." His comments on the phrase were, however, a little varied, though always brief; such as, "Wot a sell! Who'd ha' thought it! It's a dream, it is,--an 'orrible dream! _I_ don't believe it; who does?
Wot'll your poor mother say ?" and the like.
Bumpus had, unfortunately, good ground for making this statement.
After the cutter sailed it was discovered that Bumpus was concealed in Mrs.Stuart's cottage.

This discovery had been the result of the seaman's own recklessness and indiscretion; for when he ascertained that he was to be kept a prisoner in the cottage until the return of the Wasp, he at once made up his mind to submit with a good grace to what could not be avoided.