t this strange swarthy man, flaming with wild
enterprises, sat in full suit in the chair. He felt an uneasy misgiving
sensation, as if he had retired, not only without covering up the fire,
but leaving it fiercely burning with spitting fagots of hemlock.

But his natural complaisance induced him at least to feign himself
asleep; whereupon. Paul, laying down "Poor Richard," rose from his
chair, and, withdrawing his boots, began walking rapidly but noiselessly
to and fro, in his stockings, in the spacious room, wrapped in Indian
meditations. Israel furtively eyed him from beneath the coverlid, and
was anew struck by his aspect, now that Paul thought himself unwatched.
Stern relentless purposes, to be pursued to the points of adverse
bayonets and the muzzles of hostile cannon, were expressed in the now
rigid lines of his brow. His ruffled right hand was clutched by his
side, as if grasping a cutlass. He paced the room as if advancing upon a
fortification. Meantime a confused buzz of discussion came from the
neighboring chamber. All else was profound midnight tranquillity.
Presently, passing the large mirror over the mantel, Paul caught a
glimpse of his person. He paused, grimly regarding it, while a dash of
pleased coxcombry seemed to mingle with the otherwise savage
satisfaction expressed in his face. But the latter predominated. Soon,
rolling up his sleeve, with a queer wild smile, Paul lifted his right
arm, and stood thus for an interval, eyeing its image in the glass. From
where he lay, Israel could not see that side of the arm presented to the
mirror, but he saw its reflection, and started at perceiving there,
framed in the carved and gilded wood, certain large intertwisted ciphers
covering the whole inside of the arm, so far as exposed, with mysterious
tattooings. The design was wholly unlike the fanciful figures of
anchors, hearts, and cables, sometimes decorating small portions of
seamen's bodies. It was a sort of tattooing such as is seen only on
thoroughbred savages--deep blue, elaborate, labyrinthine, cabalistic.
Israel remembered having beheld, on one of his early voyages, something
similar on the arm of a New Zealand warrior, once met, fresh from
battle, in his native village. He concluded that on some similar early
voyage Paul must have undergone the manipulations of some pagan artist.
Covering his arm again with his laced coat-sleeve, Paul glanced
ironically at the hand of the same arm, now again half muffled