Every attempt at singing, or story telling failed. The only thing that seemed to meet with any favor was the hot punch, and this for the most part, was drank in silence. After a while they slunk away from the table one by one, and fell asleep in some remote corner of the cave, or rolled over where they sat, and were soon oblivious to everything around them. The only wakeful one among them was the captain himself, who had drank but little. He sat by the table alone. He started up! Could he have dozed and been dreaming? but surely he heard that groan again! In a more suppressed voice than before, and not repeated so many times, but the same horrid groan; he could not be mistaken, he had never heard anything else like it. The matter must be looked into. CHAPTER V. Although it was nearly true, as Captain Flint had told his men, that they were about as well acquainted with his history since he landed in this country as he was himself, such is not the case with the reader. And in order that he may be as well informed in this matter as they were, we shall now endeavor to fill up the gap in the narrative. To the crew of the vessel who had rescued him and saved his life, Captain Flint had represented himself as being one of the hands of a ship which had been wrecked at sea, and from which the only ones who had escaped, were himself and two negros, one of whom was the father of the boy who had been found with him. The father of the boy had fallen overboard, and been drowned just before the vessel hove in sight. This story, which seemed plausible enough, was believed by the men into whose hands they had fallen, and Flint and the negro, received every attention which their forlorn condition required. And upon arriving in port, charitable people exerted themselves in the captain's behalf, procuring him employment, and otherwise enabling him to procure an honest livelihood, should he so incline. But honesty was not one of the captain's virtues. He had not been long in the country before he determined to try his fortune among the Indians. He adopted this course partly because he saw in it a way of making money more rapidly than in any other, and partly because it opened to him a new field of wild adventure. Having made the acquaintance of some of the Indians who were in the habit of coming to the city occasionally for the purpose of trading, he accompanied them to their home in the wilderness, and having previously made arrangements with merchants in the city, among others Carl Rosenthrall, to purchase or dispose of his furs, he was soon driving a thriving business. In a little while he became very popular with the savages, joined one of the tribes and was made a chief. This state of things however, did not last long. The other chiefs became jealous of his influence, and incited the minds of many of the people against him.