d a great gaping wound in his
breast, right over his heart! I was so horrified, monsieur, that I
scarcely knew what to do; but, collecting myself with a mighty effort, I
went to call the captain; and when I reached his cabin I found the door
wide open and Monsieur Lemaitre crouched in a corner of it, with a great
bloodstained knife in his hand, his eyes glaring, and his lips mumbling
and muttering I know not what. I saw that there was something wrong
with him, monsieur,--I believed he had gone mad,--and I was about to
turn away and call for help; but he saw me, and, before I was aware,
sprang upon me, seizing me with one hand by the throat while with the
other he aimed blow after blow at me with his terrible knife. I
defended myself as well as I could, monsieur, fighting bravely for my
life; but what can one do against a madman? The captain seemed to
possess the strength of twenty men; he forced me irresistibly back
against the bulkhead, and then drove his knife through my arm.
Believing that he had killed me, I relaxed my hold upon him; whereupon
he hurled me to the deck, sprang over my fallen body, and bounded up on
deck, _and from thence overboard_! And now they tell me, monsieur, that
he had scarcely struck the water when a shark rose, seized him, and
dragged him under! See, monsieur, look astern! He is gone; there is
nothing to be seen of him! What shall we do? oh, mon Dieu, what shall
we do?"

"Are you _quite sure_ that the captain was seized by a shark?" I
demanded, looking round from one to another of the men, who had now
turned their faces inboard and stood staring alternately at Charpentier
and myself.

"Oh yes, monsieur," excitedly replied half a dozen of them all together,
"we all saw it; it was a monster. And," continued one of them, "the
captain had scarcely risen to the surface after his plunge overboard
when the shark seized him by the middle and dragged him under. We all
saw the blood dyeing the water,--did we not, shipmates?--but the captain
never uttered a cry; just threw up his arms and vanished. Is not that
it, my friends?"

"Yes, yes," they all exclaimed again, "that is it. Jules describes it
exactly as it occurred."

"Then," said I, "it seems to me, Monsieur Charpentier, that, Captain
Lemaitre and the mate being dead, nothing remains but for you to take
command and navigate the schooner to her destination."

"But, monsieur, I cannot do that, for, unhappily, I am not a navigator,