ptain Delano had flung the Spaniard aside,
almost in the very act of clutching him, and, by the unconscious recoil,
shifting his place, with arms thrown up, so promptly grappled the
servant in his descent, that with dagger presented at Captain Delano's
heart, the black seemed of purpose to have leaped there as to his mark.
But the weapon was wrenched away, and the assailant dashed down into the
bottom of the boat, which now, with disentangled oars, began to speed
through the sea.

At this juncture, the left hand of Captain Delano, on one side, again
clutched the half-reclined Don Benito, heedless that he was in a
speechless faint, while his right-foot, on the other side, ground the
prostrate negro; and his right arm pressed for added speed on the after
oar, his eye bent forward, encouraging his men to their utmost.

But here, the officer of the boat, who had at last succeeded in beating
off the towing sailors, and was now, with face turned aft, assisting the
bowsman at his oar, suddenly called to Captain Delano, to see what the
black was about; while a Portuguese oarsman shouted to him to give heed
to what the Spaniard was saying.

Glancing down at his feet, Captain Delano saw the freed hand of the
servant aiming with a second dagger--a small one, before concealed in
his wool--with this he was snakishly writhing up from the boat's bottom,
at the heart of his master, his countenance lividly vindictive,
expressing the centred purpose of his soul; while the Spaniard,
half-choked, was vainly shrinking away, with husky words, incoherent to
all but the Portuguese.

That moment, across the long-benighted mind of Captain Delano, a flash
of revelation swept, illuminating, in unanticipated clearness, his
host's whole mysterious demeanor, with every enigmatic event of the day,
as well as the entire past voyage of the San Dominick. He smote Babo's
hand down, but his own heart smote him harder. With infinite pity he
withdrew his hold from Don Benito. Not Captain Delano, but Don Benito,
the black, in leaping into the boat, had intended to stab.

Both the black's hands were held, as, glancing up towards the San
Dominick, Captain Delano, now with scales dropped from his eyes, saw the
negroes, not in misrule, not in tumult, not as if frantically concerned
for Don Benito, but with mask torn away, flourishing hatchets and
knives, in ferocious piratical revolt. Like delirious black dervishes,
the six Ashantees danced on the poop. Prev