neously leant
over him with outstretched arms,--one holding what appeared a piece of
blanket over his face, as if to stifle his breath,--the other striking
down upon his breast with a glittering blade, as if stabbing him to the
heart.

The double action occupied scarce a second of time. In the darkness, no
one appeared to perceive it, except they were its perpetrators. No one
seemed to hear that choking, gurgling cry that accompanied it; or if
they did, it was only to shape a half conjecture, that some one of their
companions was indulging in a troubled dream!

The assassins, horror-stricken at what they had done, skulked
tremblingly back to their former position by the mast.

Their victim, stretched on his back, remained motionless upon the spot
where they had visited him; and anyone standing over him, as he lay,
might have supposed that he was still slumbering!

Alas! it was the slumber of death!

CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE.

DOUSING THE GLIM.

We left the crew of the _Catamaran_ in full occupation,--"smoking"
shark-flesh on the back of a _cachalot_ whale.

To make sure of a sufficient stock,--enough to last them with light
rations for a voyage, if need be, to the other side of the Atlantic,--
they had continued at the work all day long, and several hours into the
night. They had kept the fire ablaze by pouring fresh spermaceti into
the furnace of flesh which they had constructed, or rather excavated, in
the back of the leviathan; and so far as that kind of fuel was
concerned, they might have gone on roasting shark-steaks for a
twelvemonth. But they had proved that the spermaceti would not burn to
any purpose without a wick; and as their spare ropes were too precious
to be all picked into oakum, they saw the necessity of economising their
stock of the latter article. But for this deficiency, they might have
permitted the furnace-lamp to burn on during the whole night, or until
it should go out by the exhaustion of the wick.

As they were not yet quite satisfied with the supply of broiled
shark-meat, they had resolved to take a fresh spell at roasting on the
morrow; and in order that the wick should not be idly wasted, they had
"doused the glim" before retiring to rest.

They had extinguished the flame in a somewhat original fashion,--by
pouring upon it a portion of the liquid spermaceti taken out of the
case. The light, after giving a final flash, had gone out, leaving them
in utter darkness.

But t