At this moment a horrible scene took place.
The old man, tottering on the arms of two seamen, was being led into
the cuddy, followed by the girl, who walked unaided. The madman, in
the grasp of the big sailor named Johnson, stood near the gangway; and
as I scrambled on deck, one of the men was holding a pannikin full of
water to his face. The poor wretch was shrinking away from it, with
his eyes half out of their sockets; but suddenly tearing his arm with a
violent effort from the rope that bound him, he seized the pannikin and
bit clean through the tin; after which, throwing back his head, he
swallowed the whole draught dashed the pannikin down, his face turned
black and he fell dead on the deck.
The big sailor sprung aside with an oath, forced from him by his
terror; and from every looker-on there broke a groan. They all shrunk
away and stood staring with blanched faces. Such a piteous sight as it
was, lying doubled up, with the rope pinioning the miserable limbs, the
teeth locked, and the right arm uptossed!
"Aft here and get the quarter-boat hoisted up!" shouted Duckling,
advancing on the poop; and seeing the man dead on the deck, he added,
"Get a tarpaulin and cover him up, and let him lie on the fore-hatch.
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