"
Harry, hearing his reply, was shocked. Could the man turn a deaf ear to
those repeated sounds of distress, when it was in his power to save
them? Ah, boy, it is even so! but he is not a man. Harry could endure
the thought no longer, as fainter and fainter grew the reports, as they
bore away from them; he begged Sampson to implore the captain to return,
Sampson telling him "it was of no use, that it would not do to cross
him again."
"Then I will go myself to him; he cannot have the heart to leave them to
perish!"
"Rash boy, your life will be the penalty! you must not do it."
"I will do my duty, though I should die for it! there is the least
possibility of his hearing me, and what is one life compared with, it
may be, a hundred."
"Stay, mad boy!" cried Sampson; but he had gone.
Reaching the quarter-deck, upon his knees he implored the captain to
return. "Think, if it were your father, brother, or a son, in that
hopeless condition, would you not render them all the assistance in
your power?"
"I have three brothers and a father upon the ocean," vociferated the
demon; "for aught I know it may be one of them! but were they all aboard
that hulk yonder, I would not return! But who are you, sirrah, that
dares to usurp my power? Now, upstart, you shall know your place!" and
he seized him by the collar, bore him aft, lashed him to a spar, called
for the cat, and lifting it high in air,--it falls, but the cursed
invention of man's cruelty falls wide of its mark! Ere its descent had
scarred that fair brow, a rush was heard from the main gangway, and old
Neptune, with a fierce growl, has fastened his teeth in the monster's
flesh! Quick as thought his master called him off, and every man stood
trembling, as they observed the captain feeling for his pistols; but his
strength failed him, the dog had met his teeth in the wound received by
the mismanagement of the harpoon, tearing the flesh nearly from off his
limb.
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