sail whatever, but such are not
to be trusted at sea.

But to return from this digression. It had never been customary with the
mate to have any watch on deck when lying-to in a gale of wind, and the
fact that he had now one, coupled with the circumstance of the missing
axes and handspikes, fully convinced us that the crew were too well on
the watch to be taken by surprise in the manner Peters had suggested.
Something, however, was to be done, and that with as little delay as
practicable, for there could be no doubt that a suspicion having
been once entertained against Peters, he would be sacrificed upon the
earliest occasion, and one would certainly be either found or made upon
the breaking of the gale.

Augustus now suggested that if Peters could contrive to remove, under
any pretext, the piece of chain-cable which lay over the trap in the
stateroom, we might possibly be able to come upon them unawares by means
of the hold; but a little reflection convinced us that the vessel rolled
and pitched too violently for any attempt of that nature.

By good fortune I at length hit upon the idea of working upon the
superstitious terrors and guilty conscience of the mate. It will be
remembered that one of the crew, Hartman Rogers, had died during the
morning, having been attacked two days before with spasms after drinking
some spirits and water. Peters had expressed to us his opinion that this
man had been poisoned by the mate, and for this belief he had reasons,
so he said, which were incontrovertible, but which he could not be
prevailed upon to explain to us--this wayward refusal being only in
keeping with other points of his singular character. But whether or not
he had any better grounds for suspecting the mate than we had ourselves,
we were easily led to fall in with his suspicion, and determined to act
accordingly.

Rogers had died about eleven in the forenoon, in violent convulsions;
and the corpse presented in a few minutes after death one of the most
horrid and loathsome spectacles I ever remember to have seen. The
stomach was swollen immensely, like that of a man who has been drowned
and lain under water for many weeks. The hands were in the same
condition, while the face was shrunken, shrivelled, and of a chalky
whiteness, except where relieved by two or three glaring red blotches
like those occasioned by the erysipelas: one of these blotches extended
diagonally across the face, completely covering up an eye as if