ife.

At night we again retired to our hammocks, but no one slept, so afraid
were we of a second visitation. The bell was not struck by the men, but
it struck itself, louder than I ever heard it before; and again the
dreadful voice was heard, "_All hands ahoy_!" again the water rushed in,
and again we ran on deck. As before, it mounted as high as the orlop
beams; it then stopped, and was pumped out again by eight o'clock on the
ensuing morning.

For a month, during which time we never saw land, for we had lost all
reckoning, and no one cared to steer--the same dreadful visitation took
place. Habit had to a degree hardened the men; they now swore and got
drunk as before, and even made a jest of the _boatswain of the middle
watch_, as they called him, but at the same time they were worn out with
constant fatigue; and one night they declared that they would pump no
longer. The water remained in the vessel all that day, and we retired to
our hammocks as usual; when at midnight, the same voice was again heard
at the hatchway, not followed by the rush of water, but by a shriek of
"_Tumble up there, tumble up_!"

We all started at the summons, and hastened on deck; there was something
that impelled us in spite of ourselves. Never shall I forget the horrid
sight which presented itself: stretched in a row on the deck of the
vessel lay the fifteen bloody corpses of my shipmates who had been
murdered. We stood aghast; the hair rose straight up from our heads, as
we viewed the supernatural reappearances. After a pause of about five
minutes, during which we never spoke or even moved, one of the corpses
cried out in a sepulchral voice, "_Come, every man his bird_!" and held
up its arms as it lay.

The man, whose office it had been to take the living body to the
gangway, and after killing it to throw it overboard, advanced towards
it; he was evidently impelled by a supernatural power, for never shall I
forget the look of horror, the faint scream of agony, which escaped him
as he obeyed the summons. Like the trembling bird fascinated by the
snake, he fell into the arms of the dead body; which grasping him tight,
rolled over and over in convolutions like a serpent, until it gained the
break of the gangway, and then tumbled into the sea with its murderer
entwined in its embraces. A flash of lightning succeeded, which blinded
us for several minutes; and when we recovered our vision, the remainder
of the bodies had disappeared.

The