help for it. The best thing, now, seemed to be to withdraw unobserved,
and wait for another opportunity. He did so; and he had not long retired,
when the mate came out staggering and flushed with liquor, and that was a
thing that had never occurred before. He left the cabin door open and
went into his own room.

Soon after sounds issued from the cabin--peculiar sounds, something
between grunting and snoring.

Mr. Hazel came and entered the cabin. There he found the captain of the
_Proserpine_ in a position very unfavorable to longevity. His legs were
crooked over the seat of his chair, and his head was on the ground. His
handkerchief was tight round his neck, and the man himself dead drunk,
and purple in the face.

Mr. Hazel instantly undid his stock, on which the gallant seaman muttered
inarticulately. He then took his feet off the chair and laid them on the
ground, and put the empty bottle under the animal's neck.

But he had no sooner done all this than he had a serious misgiving. Would
not this man's death have been a blessing? Might not his life prove
fatal?

The thought infuriated him, and he gave the prostrate figure a heavy kick
that almost turned it over, and the words, "Duty to employers," gurgled
out of its mouth directly.

It really seemed as if these sounds were independent of the mind, and
resided at the tip of Hudson's tongue, so that a thorough good kick
could, at any time, shake them out of his inanimate body.