Page:Remarkable family adventure of Saunders Watson (1).pdf/21

Rh what sort of a hand we have got on board with us—he told me he would never leave me, and he has kept his word—you only see him now and then, but he is always by my side, and never out of sight. At this very moment I see him—I have determined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you.’ The mate replied, that his leaving the vessel while out of sight of land was impossible; he advised, that if the captain apprehended any bad consequences from what had happened, he should run for the west of France or Ireland, and there go ashore and leave him, the mate, to carry the vessel into Liverpool. The captain only shook his head gloomily and reiterated his determination to leave the ship. At this moment the mate was called to the deck for some purpose or other, and the instant he got up the companion-ladder he heard a plash in the water, and, looking over the ship’s side, saw that the captain had thrown himself into the sea from the quarter-gallery, and was running astern at the rate of six knots an hour. When just about to sink, he seemed to make a last exertion, sprung half out of the water, and clasped his hands towards the mate, calling, ‘By, Bill Jones is with me now!’ and then sunk, to be seen no more. Sir Walter Scott's Demonology.