Hermann, he give one yell, for he vas sleep and not awaken yet, and den
dere vas a splash and de sharks swallow him up!"

"Good heavens, man!" cried Captain Miles, "why did you not tell us of
this before?"

"I vas afraid, and de man is now dead too; so I did not speak," answered
the other slowly.

"Yes, he's dead and gone to his account! I suppose we need not talk
about him any more," said the captain, deeply moved, adding a minute
after, as if unable to keep his emotion to himself, "But, he was a
scoundrel! I say, Jackson, you had a lucky escape from him last night!"

"Thank God, sir, yes," replied the young seaman. "He took a grudge to
me from the first, before ever you promoted me, and that, of course,
made him hate me afterwards more than ever. I did not think, though, he
would have tried to take my life. I suppose that was the reason he
looked so very strangely when he tried to clutch me before he jumped
into the sea?"

"Not a doubt of it," said Mr Marline. "He seemed thunderstruck, I
know, for I particularly noticed his look. He must have been surprised
at seeing you there alive, when he thought he had already settled you
for good and all!"

"Well, he has met his own punishment," answered Jackson; "and I do not
bear him any ill-will now--or ever did for that matter. Let him rest."

"Aye," said Captain Miles; "but, how's Gottlieb going on--are you
better, my man?"

But, there was no answer to the captain's question; and Jackson, bending
over the German sailor, found his heart had ceased to beat, his body
already becoming cold.

"Golly, Mass' Cap'en," called out Jake, "him 'peak de trute dat time,
suah, him dead as door-nail!"

This news made everyone silent, each man thinking how soon his own time
might come; and we anxiously awaited the morning.

During the sad episode that had occurred the wind had risen, beginning
to blow pretty strongly from the westwards. The sea, too, had got up,
for short choppy waves were dashing against the stern of the ship and
throwing their broken wash over us. This made our situation less
comfortable than it had been previously, our worn-out bodies and hunger-
stricken frames not being able to stand the exposure so well now as at
first.

The masts, also, were grinding against the bulwarks and making a
horrible din, the crunching of the timber work and splintering noise of
the planks almost deadening the noise of the sea and preventing us from
hearing each ot