st
encounter, and, brushing away the dust with the cuff of his coat sleeve
with extraordinary care, adjusted the beaver upon his head with the
utmost nicety. Then turning, still stupefied as with the fumes of some
powerful drug, he prepared to quit the scene of tragic terrors that had
thus unexpectedly accumulated upon him.

But ere he could put his design into execution his ears were startled
by the sound of loud and hurried footsteps which, coming from below,
ascended the stairs with a prodigious clatter and bustle of speed. At
the landing these footsteps paused for a while, and then approached,
more cautious and deliberate, toward the room where the double tragedy
had been enacted, and where our hero yet stood silent and inert.

All this while Jonathan made no endeavor to escape, but stood passive
and submissive to what might occur. He felt himself the victim of
circumstances over which he himself had no control. Gazing at the
partly opened door, he awaited for whatever adventure might next befall
him. Once again the footsteps paused, this time at the very threshold,
and then the door was slowly pushed open from without.

As our hero gazed at the aperture there presently became disclosed to
his view the strong and robust figure of one who was evidently of a
seafaring habit. From the gold braid upon his hat, the seals dangling
from the ribbon at his fob, and a certain particularity of custom, he
was evidently one of no small consideration in his profession. He was
of a strong and powerful build, with a head set close to his shoulders,
and upon a round, short bull neck. He wore a black cravat, loosely
tied into a knot, and a red waistcoat elaborately trimmed with gold
braid; a leather belt with a brass buckle and hanger, and huge
sea-boots completed a costume singularly suggestive of his occupation
in life. His face was round and broad, like that of a cat, and a
complexion stained, by constant exposure to the sun and wind, to a
color of newly polished mahogany. But a countenance which otherwise
might have been humorous, in this case was rendered singularly
repulsive by the fact that his nose had been broken so flat to his face
that all that remained to distinguish that feature were two circular
orifices where the nostrils should have been. His eyes were by no
means so sinister as the rest of his visage, being of a light-gray
color and exceedingly vivacious--even good-natured in the merry
restlessness of th