s by
virtue of this remarkable difference of efficiency and will. Truly, they
were more widely differentiated from the men under them than were the men
under them differentiated from Hottentots--ay, and from monkeys.

I, too, by this time, was standing on the big hawser-bitts in a position
to see a man in the water who seemed deliberately swimming away from the
ship. He was a dark-skinned Mediterranean of some sort, and his face, in
a clear glimpse I caught of it, was distorted by frenzy. His black eyes
were maniacal. The line was so accurately flung by the second mate that
it fell across the man's shoulders, and for several strokes his arms
tangled in it ere he could swim clear. This accomplished, he proceeded
to scream some wild harangue and once, as he uptossed his arms for
emphasis, I saw in his hand the blade of a long knife.

Bells were jangling on the tug as it started to the rescue. I stole a
look up at Captain West. He had walked to the port side of the poop,
where, hands in pockets, he was glancing, now for'ard at the struggling
man, now aft at the tug. He gave no orders, betrayed no excitement, and
appeared, I may well say, the most casual of spectators.

The creature in the water seemed now engaged in taking off his clothes. I
saw one bare arm, and then the other, appear. In his struggles he
sometimes sank beneath the surface, but always he emerged, flourishing
the knife and screaming his addled harangue. He even tried to escape the
tug by diving and swimming underneath.

I strolled for'ard, and arrived in time to see him hoisted in over the
rail of the _Elsinore_. He was stark naked, covered with blood, and
raving. He had cut and slashed himself in a score of places. From one
wound in the wrist the blood spurted with each beat of the pulse. He was
a loathsome, non-human thing. I have seen a scared orang in a zoo, and
for all the world this bestial-faced, mowing, gibbering thing reminded me
of the orang. The sailors surrounded him, laying hands on him,
withstraining him, the while they guffawed and cheered. Right and left
the two mates shoved them away, and dragged the lunatic down the deck and
into a room in the 'midship house. I could not help marking the strength
of Mr. Pike and Mr. Mellaire. I had heard of the superhuman strength of
madmen, but this particular madman was as a wisp of straw in their hands.
Once into the bunk, Mr. Pike held down the struggling fool easily with
one ha