As his companions seemed resolved to stay, however, there remained no alternative for the burgher, but patience.  Although apprehension of some indiscreet exposure was certainly the feeling uppermost in his mind, he was not entirely without some of the weakness which caused Oloff Van Staats to listen and to gaze with so much obvious interest and secret awe.  Even Ludlow, himself, felt more affected than he would have willing owned, by the extraordinary situation in which he was placed.  No man is entirely insensible to the influence of sympathy, let it exert its power in what manner it will.  Of this the young sailor was the more conscious, through the effect that was produced on himself, by the grave exterior and attentive manner of all the mariners of the brigantine.  He was a seaman of no mean accomplishments; and, among other attainments that properly distinguish men of his profession, he had learned to know the country of a sailor, by those general and distinctive marks which form the principal difference between men whose common pursuit has in so great a degree created a common character.  Intelligence, at that day, was confined to narrow limits among those who dwelt on the ocean.  Even the officer was but too apt to be one of rude and boisterous manners, of limited acquirements and of deep and obstinate prejudices.  No wonder then, that the common man was, in general, ignorant of most of those opinions which gradually enlighten society.  Ludlow had seen, on entering the vessel, that her crew was composed of men of different countries.  Age and personal character seemed to have been more consulted, in their selection, than national distinctions.  There was a Finlander, with a credulous and oval physiognomy, sturdy but short frame, and a light vacant eye; and a dark-skinned seaman of the Mediterranean, whose classical outline of feature was often disturbed by uneasy and sensitive glances at the horizon.  These two men had come and placed themselves near the group on the quarter-deck, when the last music was heard; and Ludlow had ascribed the circumstance to a sensibility to melody, when the child Zephyr stole to their side, in a manner to show that more was meant by the movement than was apparent in the action itself.  The appearance of Tiller, who invited the party to re-enter the cabin, explained its meaning, by showing that these men, like themselves, had business with the being, who, it was pretended, had so great an agency in controlling the fortunes of the brigantine.

The party, who now passed into the little ante-room, was governed by very different sensations.  The curiosity of Ludlow was lively, fearless, and a little mingled with an interest that might be termed professional; while that of his two companions was not without some inward reverence for the mysterious power of the sorceress.  The two seamen manifested dull dependence, while the boy exhibited, in his ingenuous and half-terrified countenance, most unequivocally the influence of childish awe.  The mariner of the shawl was grave, silent, and, what was unusual in his deportment, respectful.  After a moment’s delay, the door of the inner apartment was opened by Seadrift himself, and he signed for the whole to enter.