There was another circumstance, too, which interested me much.  During the two wakeful nights in question, and immediately after the disappearance of Mrs. Wyatt into the extra stateroom, I was attracted by certain singular, cautious, subdued noises in that of her husband.  After listening to them for some time, with thoughtful attention, I at length succeeded perfectly in translating their import.  They were sounds occasioned by the artist in prying open the oblong box, by means of a chisel and mallet—­the latter being muffled, or deadened, by some soft woollen or cotton substance in which its head was enveloped.

In this manner I fancied I could distinguish the precise moment when he fairly disengaged the lid—­also, that I could determine when he removed it altogether, and when he deposited it upon the lower berth in his room; this latter point I knew, for example, by certain slight taps which the lid made in striking against the wooden edges of the berth, as he endeavored to lay it down very gently—­there being no room for it on the floor.  After this there was a dead stillness, and I heard nothing more, upon either occasion, until nearly daybreak; unless, perhaps, I may mention a low sobbing, or murmuring sound, so very much suppressed as to be nearly inaudible—­if, indeed, the whole of this latter noise were not rather produced by my own imagination.  I say it seemed to resemble sobbing or sighing—­but, of course, it could not have been either.  I rather think it was a ringing in my own ears.  Mr. Wyatt, no doubt, according to custom, was merely giving the rein to one of his hobbies—­indulging in one of his fits of artistic enthusiasm.  He had opened his oblong box, in order to feast his eyes on the pictorial treasure within.  There was nothing in this, however, to make him sob.  I repeat therefore, that it must have been simply a freak of my own fancy, distempered by good Captain Hardy’s green tea.  Just before dawn, on each of the two nights of which I speak, I distinctly heard Mr. Wyatt replace the lid upon the oblong box, and force the nails into their old places, by means of the muffled mallet.  Having done this, he issued from his stateroom, fully dressed, and proceeded to call Mrs. W. from hers.

We had been at sea seven days, and were now off Cape Hatteras, when there came a tremendously heavy blow from the southwest.  We were, in a measure, prepared for it, however, as the weather had been holding out threats for some time.  Everything was made snug, alow and aloft; and as the wind steadily freshened, we lay to, at length, under spanker and foretopsail, both double-reefed.

In this trim, we rode safely enough for forty-eight hours—­the ship proving herself an excellent sea boat, in many respects, and shipping no water of any consequence.  At the end of this period, however, the gale had freshened into a hurricane, and our after-sail split into ribbons, bringing us so much in the trough of the water that we shipped several prodigious seas, one immediately after the other.  By this accident we lost three men overboard with the caboose, and nearly the whole of the larboard bulwarks.  Scarcely had we recovered our senses, before the foretopsail went into shreds when we got up a storm stay-sail, and with this did pretty well for some hours, the ship heading the sea much more steadily than before.