n. My excited mind
saw evil in it. I smelled evil, tasted evil, the very skin of my body
was prickled with the air or evil that lay upon the ship. A case of
nerves? Aye, I had nerves. Most sailormen had nerves when they were
within sight of Captain Swope. This night he seemed to drench the ship
with evil, it poured out of him as ink from a squid, it was almost
something tangible. Somehow I knew that Newman's long grace was ended.
This black villain had prepared a net to trap my friend, and was even
now casting it. Somehow I knew that fresh wrongs and miseries were to
be heaped upon the wretched foc'sle. As I watched Captain Swope out of
the corners of my eyes, God's truth, I was afraid to my marrow.

Presently the second mate returned aft. "You may have your trouble
now, Captain, if you wish," he said in the same clear, carrying voice
he had before used, as he approached the skipper. "The squareheads
won't give up the body. They'll fight if we take it. They say they'll
drop him overside themselves."

The captain appeared pleased with this news. He laughed, that soft,
musical little chuckle of his that contained so much malice and
cruelty. "Oh, let the dogs dispose of their own offal, Mister," he
said, carelessly. Then, when Lynch went down to the main deck, Swope
spoke eagerly, though in low voice, to the mate. Aye, the Old Man was
gleeful, and the mate received his instructions with servile pleasure.
Presently, they went below, and the yelp of the cabin boy--roused from
sleep, doubtless, by the toe of the skipper's boot--and the subsequent
clink of glasses, told me they were toasting the occasion.

I was consumed with dread. But just what to dread, I could not guess.

The Cockney took over the helm at midnight. I hurried forward, eager
to see what was happening in the fore part of the ship, and anxious to
speak with Newman.

The air of unease, of expectancy, which I had felt so strongly aft, was
even more evident forward. My watch, though off duty, did not go below
directly. Men were standing about whispering to each other. The wheel
and lookout had been relieved, but the mate did not summon his watch to
labor, as was his custom; he kept to the poop, and we heard not a peep
from him. The squareheads had taken a lamp from the lamp-locker and a
sack of coal from the peak, and Lindquist had the body of Nils upon the
forehatch preparing it for sea-burial. He stitched away in silence,
his mates