But first, tell me how, the thing was done." By the threatening tone of his voice, as he for the third time puts this question, I understand the nature of the suspicions entertained of me.

Yet to be in the position to accuse me of having had relations with the outside he would have had to get possession of my keg.

This he could not have done, seeing that it is in the hands of the Bermudan authorities.

The pirates cannot, I am convinced, have a single proof to back up their suspicions.
I therefore recount how about eight o'clock on the previous evening I was walking along the edge of the lagoon, after Thomas Roch had passed me, going towards his laboratory, when I felt myself seized from behind; how having been gagged, bound, and blindfolded, I felt myself carried off and lowered into a hole with another person whom I thought I recognized from his groans as Thomas Roch; how I soon felt that I was on board a boat of some description and naturally concluded that it was the tug; how I felt it sink; how I felt a shock that threw me violently against the side, and how I felt myself suffocating and lost consciousness, since I remember nothing further.
Engineer Serko listens with profound attention, a stern look in his eyes and a frown on his brow; and yet he can have no reason that authorizes him to doubt my word.
"You claim that three men threw themselves upon you ?" he asks.
"Yes.

I thought they were some of your people, for I did not see them coming.