Page:The Great Secret.djvu/223

Rh and trousers, with bare feet, trying to unclasp the dead man's hands from the wheel. It took them both some minutes to do this, during the process of which Dennis had to use his clasp knife and hack off the fingers at the middle joints; then they managed to tear the corpse away and pitch it behind them over the stern, after which Dennis took possession of the wheel and examined the compass.

"She has not fallen off much, doctor, but we shall have to alter her course before long and get in some of those sails. You have made a clean sweep as usual, I see."

He was looking along the decks as he spoke, a growing horror in his eyes at the ghastly sights before him, and a secret fear for this remarkably clever man, who, with his damnable skill, could sweep off humanity in such a wholesale fashion.

The doctor did not answer; he was looking over the ocean with a sombre glare, and biting his nails abstractedly.

"I expect I shall have to take in those sheets myself," continued Dennis, "and that will be slow and heavy work; fortunately the wind is light as yet, and will fall off about noon. You will be able to manage the wheel while I do this, for we must be prepared for any kind of weather in these seas."

"Yes," replied the doctor, "I can manage the wheel, or we can lash it up and I can help with the ropes."

"These corpses must be got out of the way first, for they won't last long this weather."

"No, not with what they have taken; they will decompose more rapidly than ordinary dead men."

They were a gloomy as well as a short-handed and insufficient crew on board the George Washington on