Read "In an Unknown Prision Land" by George Griffith online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
It was on the fifth night out from Southampton that the threatening shadow of the American Custom House began to fall over the company in the saloon.
One could see ladies talking nervously together. The subject was the one most dear to the female heart; but the pleasure of talking about "things" was mingled-at least in the hearts of the uninitiated-with an uneasiness which, in not a few cases, amounted to actual fear; for that evening certain forms had been distributed by the purser, and these forms contained questions calculated to search out the inmost secret of every dress-basket and Saratoga trunk on board.