ker, often
in trouble with boatswain and master. He said odd things and sometimes
wept for his soul, and the forecastle laughed at him. This man became in
a night mad.

It was middle night. The _Santa Maria_ swung at anchor and the whole
world seemed a just-breathing stillness. There was the watch, but all
else slept. The watch, looking at Cuba and the moon on the water, did
not observe Felipe when he crept from forecastle with a long, sharp
two-edged knife such as they sell in Toledo.

Juan Lepe woke from first sleep and could not recover it. He found
Bernardo Nunez's small, small cabin stifling, and at last he got up, put
on garments, and slipped forth and through great cabin to outer air. He
might have found the Admiral there before him, for he slept little and
was about the ship at all hours, but to-night he did sleep.

I spoke to the watch, then set myself down at break of poop to breathe
the splendor of the night. The moon bathed Alpha and Omega, and the two
ships, the _Nina_ and the Santa Maria. It washed the Pinta but we saw
it not, not knowing where rode the Pinta and Martin Alonzo Pinzon. So
bright, so pleasureable, was the night!

An hour passed. My body was cooled and refreshed, my spirit quiet.
Rising, I entered great cabin on my way to bed and sleep. I felt that
the cabin was not empty, and then, there being moonlight enough, I
saw the figure by the Admiral's door. "Who is it?" I demanded, but the
unbolted door gave to the man's push, and he disappeared. I knew it was
not the Admiral and I followed at a bound. The cabin had a window and
the moonbeams came in. They showed Felipe and his knife and the great
Genoese asleep. The madman laughed and crooned, then lifted that Toledo
dagger and lunged downward with a sinewy arm. But I was upon him. The
blow fell, but a foot wide of mark. There was a struggle, a shout. The
Admiral, opening eyes, sprang from bed.

He was a powerful man, and I, too, had strength, but Felipe fought and
struggled like a desert lion. He kept crying, "I am the King! I will
send him to discover Heaven! I will send him to join the prophets!" At
last we had him down and bound him. By now the noise had brought the
watch and others. A dozen men came crowding in, in the moonlight. We
took the madman away and kept him fast, and Juan Lepe tried to cure
him but could not. In three days he died and we buried him at sea. And
Fernando, creeping to me, asked, "senor, don't you feel at times that