“The second mate and most of the starboard watch were standing around, looking on helplessly enough, though the moment the steward’s eye caught mine he ceased to struggle, moaning and mumbling, like a dog, till I got my ear close to his mouth, when he muttered something about searching the run under the after-cabin, where the powder was kept. The violence of the spasms interrupted him, and although there was an urgent meaning in his wild eye, and he pointed repeatedly aft, in his agony, I was awfully at a loss what to make of it, until, looking up, I encountered old Charley’s curious glance, and the ghost flitted, as it were, across the maze in a moment. The second mate must have seen the same thing himself, for without a word on either side, our eyes met in one startling flash of intelligence, and he followed me close, as snatching up a heaver, I drove along the deck, knocking the Arabs to the right and left, tumbling down the narrow stairs from the poop in my haste, with two-thirds of the ship’s company at my back—mates, boat-steerers, forecastle-men, and all—though the most of them tramped down the companion-way into the for’ard cabin, where we heard them battering at the doors and cursing the Arabs; the carpenter and myself ripped up the table and the scuttle under it. Parker stood by with a torch; I jumped down, lowering the light, and you may guess gentlemen, what I saw; for it seems,” said the master’s mate, passing his rough hand to his brow, “that long years, spent in trying to drown the sight, has hardly given me nerve to tell.
“It was Ellen, herself,” continued he, after a pause, “lying, motionless, on a heap of old bunting; but whether life had gone, or no, it was impossible for me to answer, as I took her up—staggering under my burthen, light enough, God knows, as it was. The second mate caught her from me, and I stumbled, helpless as a child, about the mouth of that horrid hole, hardly noting its secrets, until the men burst into the cabin, and I heard old Charley say she was dead.
“ ‘Where is Mr. Miller?’ said Frank, with an oath.
“ ‘Here,’ I answered, leaping out among them, every vein in my body running with liquid fire—the one thought of revenge on her murderers raging in my heart, and upon my tongue. However, the mates—aroused from their stupor at last—threw themselves upon me, as I glared round for a weapon. A wild uproar began to rise among the men, crowding upon each other to catch a look at her face, hanging over the second mate’s shoulder, with a look of mute appeal, as he told me afterward, on the wasted features set in death, by the red torch-light.
“In the midst of this, Hadji summoned his soldiers from deck: I saw his malignant purpose, and my calmness came back, as I made up my mind that, at all hazards, he should not approach the corpse. Breaking from those who held me, I burst through the throng, and pointing to the half-pikes leveled against his party, ordered him, in Arabic, to clear the cabin of his scum. He laid his hand on the hilt of his krungar, scowling like a fiend of darkness upon me from a crowd of his men; but the menacing look of the mass in front of him—all of whom had armed themselves—not to speak of the tone of my own voice, admonished him, devil as he was, to think better of it.
“ ‘That’s the sort, mates,’ said the carpenter; ‘if they don’t top their booms at a minute’s warning, we’ll spit the heathens to the beams, and then hang Jonas to the yard-arm.’
“ ‘Silence, there!’ said I. ‘One minute more,’ looking at the eunuch, and grasping the weapon which some one had thrust into my hand, ‘and it will be too late.’
“He felt that he was overmatched, and turning slowly round, still keeping his baleful glance fixed on my face, ordered his followers on deck, retiring last himself, just as I caught Frank’s pike traveling in his rear to freshen his way.
“As soon as the cabins were cleared of the Arabs, I took the second mate a little aside from the rest.
“ ‘Now, Mr. Parker,’ said I, ‘you will take charge of the Tartar. All I ask is, that you will not give up the female that Hadji Hamet has confined in that state-room, to the tender mercies of the sultan, if you can possibly avoid it—and a cast home for myself, if you can get an offing for this ship, and I am allowed to leave Muscat in her. I will pay my passage in Persian rupees, or if you prefer it, in Spanish dollars. One thing more,’ said I, seeing that he was about to interrupt me, ‘I know something of the country: if you would save yourself a mint of trouble with the sultan’s divan, you will put Catherton at once in double-irons, and keep him secure, at least, until you are clear of the land.’