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Updated: May 5, 2025
They saw before them the "gig" of the slaver; and, standing "midships" in the boat, just half-way between stem and stern, they saw the captain of that ill-starred, ill-fated vessel! In the minds of the Catamaran's crew there was no longer any cause for conjecture.
Before it could have been uttered, the remaining moiety of the madman's body was seized by the second shark, and borne down into the voiceless abysm of the ocean! Back to the boat! In the minds of the Catamaran's crew naturally did this resolve succeed to the spectacle they had just witnessed. There was nothing to stay them on that spot.
The sailor's caution would have come too late, even had it been necessary to the safety of the Catamaran's crew. Fortunately it was not: for that imprudent shout produced an effect which at once changed the current of the thoughts, not only of Ben Brace, but of those who had given utterance to it.
To the two oldest of the Catamaran's crew the curious circumstances of the sword-fish thrusting his rostrum through the raft, and snapping it asunder, needed no explanation. Both knew that it was not with an intention of attacking the Catamaran that the "stab" had been given; nor was the act a voluntary one, in any way. Not likely, indeed; since it had proved fatal to the swordsman himself.
Since the hour in which the two rafts became separated from each other, the reader is acquainted, in all its minute details, with the history of the lesser: how it joined issue with the embarkation that carried the ex-cook and his protege; how the union with the latter produced a cross between the two, afterwards yclept the Catamaran; with all the particulars of the Catamaran's voyage, up to the time when she became moored alongside the carcass of the cachalot; and for several days after.
They've stuck it there, so as they might be able to find the sparmacety when they come back. Marcy heaven! I hope they will come back." As Ben finished this explanatory harangue, he started into an erect attitude, and placed himself on the highest part of the Catamaran's deck, his eyes no longer bent upon the whale, but, with greedy glances, sweeping the sea around it.
Knowing that in a stern-chase every trifle tells, Leslie steered as carefully as he knew how, and as one of the catamaran's merits happened to be that she would steer almost as well off the wind as she would on a taut bowline, he hoped that through this he might be able to gain a little extra advantage.
This hypothetic suggestion on the part of the Coromantee was also intended as a counsel; and, acting upon it, the sailor scrambled back over the raft, and seizing hold of the steering-oar, turned the Catamaran's head straight in the direction of the newly-discovered land. The island, if such it should prove to be, was of no very great extent.
In this moment of agony, intense to all the others of the Catamaran's crew, Snowball was sleeping as soundly and sweetly as if he had been stretched along the bench of his caboose, and rocked to rest by the undulations of a good ship going at easy sail. Up to this time, William had not thought of awakening him; for, to say the truth, the boy had not yet quite recovered his presence of mind.
During the two hours which the sailor had remained at the steering-oar, and for some time after, no incident occurred to interrupt the tranquillity of the Catamaran's crew. A very odd sort of fish, swimming about a cable's length ahead of the craft, had attracted the attention of William and the girl, exciting their curiosity so much as to cause them to rise to their feet and stand watching it.
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