stories, of always dropping the thread at
the most thrilling moment.

"Who was she?" said I, lying in wait for him on his return.

"She was cap'n's wife, miss--a young woman, and the cap'n was old, with
a blazing kind of temper. He was dreffle sweet on her for about a month,
and mebbe she was happy, mebbe she wa'n't: how should I know about white
folks' feelin's? All of a suddent he said she was sick and couldn't go
out of the middle state-room. The old man took in plenty of stuff to
eat, but he never let me go near her. We was on just such a v'y'ge as
this, only hotter. The cap'n would come out of that room lookin' black
as thunder, and everybody scudded out of his sight when he put his head
out of the gangway.

"He was always bad enough, but he got wuss and wuss, and nothin'
couldn't please him. Sometimes I'd hear the poor thing a-moaning to
herself like a baby that's beat out with loud cryin' and hain't got no
noise left. She was always cryin' in them days. Once the supercargo (he
was a cool hand, any way) give me a bit of paper very private to give to
her, and I slipped it under the door, but the old man had nailed
somethin' down inside, an' he found it afore she did. Then there was a
regular knockdown fight, and the supercargo was put in irons. The old
man was in the middle room a long time that day, talkin' in a hissin'
kind of a way, and the missus got a blow. Just after that a sort of a
white squall struck the ship, and the old man give just the wrong
orders. You see, he was clean out of his head. He got so worked up at
last that he fell down in a fit, and they bundled him into his
state-room and left him, 'cause nobody cared whether he was dead or
alive. The mate took the irons off the supercargo first thing, and broke
open the middle room. The supercargo went in there and stayed a long
time, whispering to the missus, and she cried more'n ever, only it
sounded different.

"Toward night the old man come to, and begun to ask questions--as ugly
as ever, only as weak as a baby. 'Bout midnight I was comin' out of his
room, and I seen the missus in a gray dress, with her eyes shinin' like
coals of fire, dive out of her room and up the stairs, and nobody never
seen her afterward. The next morning the supercargo was gone too, and I
think they just drownded themselves, 'cause they couldn't bear to live
any more without each other. Mebbe the mate knew somethin' about it, but
he never let on, and I dunno no more abou