He is obsessed, I know beyond any
doubt, with the idea of vengeance on the second mate. On divers
occasions, now, I have come unexpectedly upon him and found him
muttering to himself with grim set face, or clenching and unclenching
his big square fists and grinding his teeth. His conversation
continually runs upon the feasibility of our making a night attack
for'ard, and he is perpetually questioning Tom Spink and Louis on
their ideas of where the various men may be sleeping--the point of
which always is: WHERE IS THE SECOND MATE LIKELY TO BE SLEEPING?
No later than yesterday afternoon did he give me most positive proof
of his obsession. It was four o'clock, the beginning of the first
dog-watch, and he had just relieved me. So careless have we grown,
that we now stand in broad daylight at the exposed break of the poop.
Nobody shoots at us, and, occasionally, over the top of the for'ard-
house, Shorty sticks up his head and grins or makes clownish faces at
us. At such times Mr. Pike studies Shorty's features through the
telescope in an effort to find signs of starvation.
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