132 WHALING 



Oh, Payne ! Oh, Comstock !— Don't kill me ! Don't ! Have 

 I not always ?" 



''Yes, you have always been a damned rascal," Comstock re- 

 turned coolly. "You'd tell lies of me out of the ship, would you? 

 It's a damned good time to beg now, but you're too late." 



Before Comstock stopped speaking, the mate leaped out 

 of his bunk and, getting Comstock by the throat, for a moment 

 almost turned the tables. Comstock, taken by siuprise, 

 dropped the lantern and the ax, but managed, although half 

 throttled, to call to Payne for help, while in darkness the 

 struggling men fought back and forth across the cabin. It 

 appears that Payne had lost his boarding-knife, too, and without 

 disabling the mate; for he fumbled about underfoot till he 

 found the ax and succeeded in getting it into Comstock's hand^ 

 being himself, of course, liable to kill his own leader if he 

 were to strike at the mate in the dark. 



Comstock, all this time unable to break Mr. Beetle's hold 

 on his throat, then swung the ax on him, fracturing his skull, 

 and knocked him groaning into the pantry, where he killed him, 

 while Humphries held another light and Oliver put in a blow 

 whenever opportunity offered. 



The uproar, which by then was terrific, had of course waked 

 Mr. Lumbert and Mr. Fisher, the second and third mates, who 

 could not help knowing what was going on, but who had no way 

 of knowing that the active mutineers were so few. Unarmed, 

 and terrified by the ghastly sounds on the other side of the 

 bulkhead, they waited in complete silence for whatever should 

 happen next. 



Here, by allusion, is a very strange comment on the complete 

 absence of esprit de corps — to use no stronger expression — 

 among the officers of the Glohe. Each mate seems to have 

 fought for himself alone, and thereby to have contributed much 

 to the success of the mutiny. 



Stationing his men at the door of the stateroom, when he had 

 finished with the mate, Comstock went on deck to relight his 

 lamp at the binnacle, and found his brother, alone at the helm, 

 in tears and almost overcome with fear. Comstock asked what 



