202 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT:' 



halyards were let go ; but while the sails were being 

 clewed up, the fierce wind following the rain caught them 

 from their confining gear, rending them into a thousand 

 shreds. For an hour the squall raged — a tempest in 

 brief — then swept away to the south-east on its furious 

 journey, leaving peace again. Needless perhaps to say, 

 that after such a squall it was hopeless to look for our 

 missing ones. The sudden storm had certainly driven 

 us several miles away from the spot where they dis- 

 appeared, and, although we carefully made what haste 

 was possible back along the line we were supposed to 

 have come, not a vestige of hope was in any one's mind 

 that we should ever see them again. 



Nor did we. Whether that madness, which I had 

 feared was coming upon Goliath during our previous 

 night's conversation, suddenly overpowered him and 

 impelled him to commit the horrible deed, what more 

 had passed between him and the skipper to even faintly 

 justify so awful a retaliation — these things were now 

 matters of purest speculation. As if they had never 

 been, the two men were blotted out — gone before God in 

 full-blown heat of murder and revengeful fury. 



On the same evening Mr. Count mustered all hands 

 on the quarter-deck, and addressed us thus : " Men, 

 Captain Slocum is dead, and, as a consequence, I com- 

 mand the ship. Behave yourself like men, not pre- 

 suming upon kindness or imagining that I am a weak, 

 vacillating old man with whom you can do as you like, 

 and you will find in me a skipper who will do his duty 

 by you as far as lies in his power, nor expect more from 

 you than you ought to render. If, however, you do try 

 any tricks, remember that I am an old hand, equal to 

 most of the games that men get up to. I do want — if you 



