Such an order would have spoiled the story. Notice in the presentation:
1. The gathering up of the greater part of the incidents at the shortest possible distance from the climax of action.
2. The economical and dramatic method by which the preceding circumstances are set forth. The reader knows only what McCord knows.
3. The large employment of suggestion.
4. The keeping of the place—the boat is the scene of action for three different groups, only the last group being the immediate actors.
5. The excellent clues to the shrouds as the hiding place. (See pages 237, ... “top-sails being pursed up ... but not stowed”; 238, ... “handing down like huge, over-ripe pears,” etc.)
6. The logic of McCord’s not finding the hiding place of the cook. (First sentence, page 255.) This illustrates Poe’s theory as set forth in “The Purloined Letter.”
7. The use of suspense. The reader wonders whether the explanation will lie in the supernatural or the natural. Suspense is satisfied only in the dénouement, after which the end comes quickly.
8. The motivation for the whole story. It lies in fear: “the one universal and uncontrollable passion.” And it is heightened by placing in opposition representatives of two races, neither of which understands the other. Here, then, is the real struggle.