relapsed into a
reverie, from which I found it impossible to arouse him.

On coming on deck I detected Van Luck at his old game of sowing discord
among the men. They did not, however, appear to pay much attention to
what he said. He had now no authority over them, and none but Janstins
and Bantum, who were with us on this second voyage, remembered him as
the first officer of the "Endraght". The ingratitude of the man,
however, after the consideration we had shown him, angered me, and I
spoke to him roughly, and ordered him to quit the deck.

"Take heed," I warned him, "that I do not have you put in irons, or
sent adrift upon a second voyage."

Van Luck obeyed me with a scowl, and slunk below, but I could see an
evil light in his eyes which I attributed to madness, though I was
subsequently to learn there was much method in it. I did not like to
add to Hartog's anxieties by telling him of Van Luck's conduct, and,
indeed, when I considered our present predicament, it seemed unlikely
that Van Luck, or anybody else, could do us much harm or good.

And now another event occurred to add to our perplexities. The kelp
around the vessel suddenly became alive with a small species of black
crab. These creatures must have scented the food from our vessel, and
they came in millions to besiege us in order to devour it. The deck was
soon black with them, and they swarmed below in ever-increasing
numbers. Nothing escaped them, and most of our provisions were quickly
demolished. We killed them in thousands, and the stench from their
crushed bodies almost drove us out of our minds, but other thousands
quickly filled their places, and the crustaceans continued to pour down
the hatches like black streams of evil-smelling water.

But this visitation, dreadful though it was, eventually proved our
salvation. The weed, now alive with marine life, lost its density, and
when, at length, the breeze came, we could feel we were making headway.
But had we not been able to force our passage into the open I verily
believe we would all have been devoured alive by black crabs, which
swarmed upon us. As it was, many of the men suffered severely from the
bites of these creatures, and weeks elapsed before the ship was clear
of them and the stench which they had brought aboard. But when the
breeze freshened from the right quarter, and we felt our vessel moving
toward the open sea, we were too thankful for our escape from a
horrible death to think of t