clothes were good. His
hair was black, and his features well-shaped, though his face had a
half-convulsed expression, as if something frightful had appeared to
him, and he had died of the sight of it.

"This wreck must be his coffin," I said. "He is a corpse. We can do no
more."

We scrambled for the last time along the life-line and got into the
fore-chains, but to our consternation saw the boat rowing away from
the wreck. However, the fit of rage and terror that possessed me,
lasted but a moment or two; for I now saw they were giving chase to
the madman, who was swimming steadily away. Two of the men rowed, and
the third hung over the bows, ready to grasp the miserable wretch.
The _Grosvenor_ stood steady, about a mile off, with her mainyards
backed; andboom of
a sea against the vessel's side, and the sousing rush of water on deck.
But after the men had been at work some time, the vessel laboured less
and got upon a more even keel.

Two bells (nine o'clock) had been struck, when I was suddenly attracted
by a sound of hammering upon the dead-light in my cabin. I turned my
head hastily; but as it was not only dark inside, but dark without, I
could discern nothing, and concluded that the noise had been made on
the deck overhead.

After an interval of a minute the hammering was repeated, and now it
was impossible for me to doubt that it was caused by something hard,
such as the handle of a knife being struck upon the thick glass of
the port-hole. I was greatly astonished; but remembering