as they were spoken, his words might not be very significant, but pieced
together, arranged, and interpreted through even scant knowledge of
circumstances, they were sufficient to give me a key to difficulties
which, afterwards, were to cause much distress. I arrange some of the
sentences here to show how startling were the fancies--or remembrances
--that vexed him.

"But I was coming back--I was coming back--I tell you I should have
stayed with her for ever. . . . See how she trembles!--Now her breath
is gone--There is no pulse--Her heart is still--My God, her heart is
still!--Hush! cover her face. . . . Row hard, you devils!--A hundred
dollars if you make the point in time. . . . Whereaway?--Whereaway?--
Steady now!--Let them have it across the bows!--Low! low!--fire low! . . .
She is dead--she is dead!"

These things he would say over and over again breathlessly, then he would
rest a while, and the trouble would begin again. "It was not I that did
it--no, it was not I. She did it herself!--She plunged it in, deep,
deep, deep! You made me a devil! . . . Hush! I WILL tell!--I know
you--yet--Mercy--Mercy--Falchion--"

Yes, it was best that few should enter his cabin. The ravings of a sick
man are not always counted ravings, no more than the words of a well man
are always reckoned sane. At last I got him into a sound sleep, and
by that time I was thoroughly tired out. I called my own steward, and
asked him to watch for a couple of hours while I rested. I threw myself
down and slept soundly for an hour beyond that time, the steward having
hesitated to wake me.

By that time we had passed into the fresher air of the Mediterranean, and