“Thrown over! How—by whom?” exclaimed the captain quite startled.
“He vas throw over by Davis—he one bad man.”
“Davis?” cried Captain Miles, all of us eagerly listening.
“Ye–es. Davis, he grab holt of poor Hermann and say, ‘ah, you rascal, Jackson, I have you now,’ and den he pitch him over the side. Poor Hermann, he give one yell, for he vas sleep and not awaken yet, and den dere vas a splash and de sharks swallow him up!”
“Good heavens, man!” cried Captain Miles, “why did you not tell us of this before?”
“I vas afraid, and de man is now dead too; so I did not speak,” answered the other slowly.
“Yes, he’s dead and gone to his account! I suppose we need not talk about him any more,” said the captain, deeply moved, adding a minute after, as if unable to keep his emotion to himself, “But, he was a scoundrel! I say, Jackson, you had a lucky escape from him last night!”
“Thank God, sir, yes,” replied the young seaman. “He took a grudge to me from the first, before ever you promoted me, and that, of course, made him hate me afterwards more than ever. I did not think, though, he would have tried to take my life. I suppose that was the reason he looked so very strangely when he tried to clutch me before he jumped into the sea?”
“Not a doubt of it,” said Mr Marline. “He seemed thunderstruck, I know, for I particularly noticed his look. He must have been surprised at seeing you there alive, when he thought he had already settled you for good and all!”
“Well, he has met his own punishment,” answered Jackson; “and I do not bear him any ill-will now—or ever did for that matter. Let him rest.”