d when he lost recollection, would suspect
me of foul play, and in the barbarous rage of a pirate fall upon and
endeavour to kill me. Thus you will see that I had no very high opinion
of the morals and character of the man I had given life to; and indeed,
after I had armed myself and was seated again before the furnace, I felt
extremely melancholy, and underwent the severest dejection of spirits
that had yet visited me, fearing that my humanity had achieved nothing
more than to bring me into the society of a devil, who would prove a
fixed source of anxiety and misery to me. Was it conceivable that the
others should be worse than, or even as bad as, this creature? His hair
showed him hoary in vice. The Italian was a handsome man, and let him
have been as profligate as he would, as cruel and fierce a pirate as
Tassard had painted him, he would at all events have proved a sightly
companion, and harmless as being blind, though to be sure for that
reason of no use to me. Yet though his blindness would have made him a
burden, I had rather have thawed him into life than the Frenchman.

The mere thought of feeling under an obligation to arm myself filled me
with such vindictive passions that I protest as I sat alone waiting for
him. I felt as if it were a duty I owed myself to return him to the
condition in which I found him, which was to be easily contrived by my
binding him in his sleep and dragging him to the deck and leaving him to
stupefy alongside the body of the giant Joam Barros. "Peace!" cried I to
myself with a shiver; "villain that thou art to harbour such thoughts!
Thou art a hundred-fold worse than the wretch against whom Satan is
setting thee plotting to think thus vilely." I gulped down this bolus
of conscience with the help of a draught of wine, and it did me good.
Lord, how dangerous is loneliness to a man! Depend upon it, your seeker
after solitude is only hunting for the road that leads to Bedlam.

It might be that he was long because of having to seek for the keys; but
my own conviction was that he found the keys easily and stayed to
rummage the boxes for such jewels and articles of value as he might
there find. I think he was gone near half an hour; he then returned to
the cook-house, saying briefly, "I have the keys," and jingling them,
and after warming himself, said, "Let us go."

I was moving towards the forecastle.

"Not that way for the run," cried he.

"Is there a hatch aft?" I asked.

"Certain