We stood aghast; the hair rose straight up from our heads, as
we viewed the supernatural reappearances. After a pause of about five
minutes, during which we never spoke or even moved, one of the corpses
cried out in a sepulchral voice, "_Come, every man his bird_!" and held
up its arms as it lay.
The man, whose office it had been to take the living body to the
gangway, and after killing it to throw it overboard, advanced towards
it; he was evidently impelled by a supernatural power, for never shall I
forget the look of horror, the faint scream of agony, which escaped him
as he obeyed the summons. Like the trembling bird fascinated by the
snake, he fell into the arms of the dead body; which grasping him tight,
rolled over and over in convolutions like a serpent, until it gained the
break of the gangway, and then tumbled into the sea with its murderer
entwined in its embraces. A flash of lightning succeeded, which blinded
us for several minutes; and when we recovered our vision, the remainder
of the bodies had disappeared.
The effect upon the guilty wretches was dreadful; there they lay, each
man on the deck where he had crouched down, when the lightning had
flashed upon him: the sun rose upon them, yet they moved not; he poured
his beams on their naked bodies when at his meridian height, yet they
still remained: the evening closed in, and found them in the same
positions. As soon as it was dark, as if released from a spell, they
crawled below, and went into their hammocks: at midnight again the bell
struck; again the voice was heard, followed by the shriek; again they
repaired on deck: the fourteen remaining bodies lay in a row: another of
the murderers was summoned, obeyed, and disappeared: again the flash of
lightning burst upon us, and all had vanished; and thus it continued
every night, until the boatswain, who was reserved for the last, was
dragged overboard after the rest by the corpse of the captain; and then
a tremendous voice from the maintop, followed by exulting laughter,
cried out, "_That job's done_.
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