In vain! I hurt my hands against the bolts of the plates, and no one answers my cries.
Such conduct is unworthy of me.

I flattered myself that I would remain calm under all circumstances and here I am acting like a child.
The absence of any rolling or lurching movement at least proves that we are not yet at sea.

Instead of crossing Pamlico Sound, may we not be going in the opposite direction, up the River Neuse?
No! What would they go further inland for?
If Thomas Roch has been carried off from Healthful House, his captors obviously mean to take him out of the United States--probably to a distant island in the Atlantic, or to some point on the European continent.

It is, therefore, not up the Neuse that our maritime machine, whatever it may be, is going, but across Pamlico Sound, which must be as calm as a mirror.
Very well, then, when we get to sea I shall soon, know, for the vessel will rock right enough in the swell off shore, even though there be no wind,--unless I am aboard a battleship, or big cruiser, and this I fancy can hardly be! But hark! If I mistake not--no, it was not imagination--I hear footsteps.

Some one is approaching the side of the compartment where the door is.