"Rash boy, your life will be the penalty! you must not do it."
"I will do my duty, though I should die for it! there is the least possibility of his hearing me, and what is one life compared with, it may be, a hundred."
"Stay, mad boy!" cried Sampson; but he had gone.
Reaching the quarter-deck, upon his knees he implored the captain to return. "Think, if it were your father, brother, or a son, in that hopeless condition, would you not render them all the assistance in your power?"
"I have three brothers and a father upon the ocean," vociferated the demon; "for aught I know it may be one of them! but were they all aboard that hulk yonder, I would not return! But who are you, sirrah, that dares to usurp my power? Now, upstart, you shall know your place!" and he seized him by the collar, bore him aft, lashed him to a spar, called for the cat, and lifting it high in air,--it falls, but the cursed invention of man's cruelty falls wide of its mark! Ere its descent had scarred that fair brow, a rush was heard from the main gangway, and old Neptune, with a fierce growl, has fastened his teeth in the monster's flesh! Quick as thought his master called him off, and every man stood trembling, as they observed the captain feeling for his pistols; but his strength failed him, the dog had met his teeth in the wound received by the mismanagement of the harpoon, tearing the flesh nearly from off his limb. It really was a pitiable sight to behold. Faint from the loss of blood, he was carried below, where his wound was dressed by one of the men, having no regular surgeon aboard, consequently its fatality was not realized. The groans and writhings of the sufferer were heart-rending; all day long did he rave, imploring Sampson, who attended him, to "take the fiend away! that he was being devoured alive!" and thus did he toss upon his bed till toward evening, when a change for the worse came over him. Sampson saw that the seal of death was stamped upon his features, and at set of sun, with an imprecation upon his dying lips, he had breathed his last. O, how fearful to enter that spirit land thus unprepared! to come before our Judge with a soul stained in the deepest sins, trembling with its burden of guilt. Lord, grant that we be not thus found when thou shalt call! Give us strength to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, so that at the last, we shall taste those joys which exist "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." They buried him in the deep sea. Perhaps his body lay side by side with those who, through his unfeeling heart, had found a watery grave; but we trust that, unlike him, they had gone to meet the reward of having lived an holy life,--gone to the "sailor's home," in the skies.
The stars shone out, one by one, in the firmament, when the king of day had descended. Calmly the night looked down, and undisturbed were Harry's thoughts, as seated upon the taffrail, old Neptune by his side, he once again breathed the air of liberty. Not that he rejoiced that he was thus freed from him who had kept him in perfect slavery, for he alone had dropped a tear over the uncoffined burial of his persecutor; but his heart was filled with gratitude, as he looked into the peerless night,--gratitude to Him who has given us a soul, that we may admire the works of his hands. As Harry sat musing, turning from the heavenly orbs to their semblance on the bosom of the placid waters, he observed, as it were, a fallen star, mirrored therein, but rousing his dreamy senses, he found it was a small, shining object, floating near them. He drew it from the water; it was a block of wood, in the form of an octagon, highly polished, inlaid with bits of pearl, forming grotesque figures, and thickly studded with some bright mineral, representing stars, which gave it a very handsome appearance.
"Well, if the youngster isn't picking up moonshine," remarked Sampson, examining the curiosity. "Some poor fellow designed that for his sweetheart, likely; but I suppose it will make but little difference with her, if she hears he's among the missing, she can just as well set her colors for another. These bright-winged butterflies go upon the principle that 'there's as good fish in the sea as ever was caught.'"
"O, ho, Sampson," cried the jolly faced mate, who had now taken the captain's berth, "you are inclined to give the fair ones no quarters. I shouldn't wonder if they had given you the slip, in some of your cruisings."
"Well, sir, nothing of that kind, exactly; I never had much notion for shipping under one captain for life."
"A little frightened, eh?"