Wicks sat on the fore hatch, raised the face of a man of seventy, and looked a wordless question.  Carthew shook his head.  With such composure as a man displays marching towards the gallows, Wicks arose, walked to the scuttle, and went down.  Brown thought it was Carthew returning, and discovered himself, half crawling from his shelter, with another incoherent burst of pleading.  Wicks emptied his revolver at the voice, which broke into mouse-like whimperings and groans.  Silence succeeded, and the murderer ran on deck like one possessed.

The other three were now all gathered on the fore hatch, and Wicks took his place beside them without question asked or answered.  They sat close, like children in the dark, and shook each other with their shaking.  The dusk continued to fall; and there was no sound but the beating of the surf and the occasional hiccup of a sob from Tommy Hadden.

“God, if there was another ship!” cried Carthew of a sudden.

Wicks started and looked aloft with the trick of all seamen, and shuddered as he saw the hanging figure on the royal yard.

“If I went aloft, I’d fall,” he said simply.  “I’m done up.”

It was Amalu who volunteered, climbed to the very truck, swept the fading horizon, and announced nothing within sight.

“No odds,” said Wicks.  “We can’t sleep ...”

“Sleep!” echoed Carthew; and it seemed as if the whole of Shakespeare’s Macbeth thundered at the gallop through his mind.

“Well, then, we can’t sit and chitter here,” said Wicks, “till we’ve cleaned ship; and I can’t turn to till I’ve had gin, and the gin’s in the cabin, and who’s to fetch it?”

“I will,” said Carthew, “if any one has matches.”

Amalu passed him a box, and he went aft and down the companion and into the cabin, stumbling upon bodies.  Then he struck a match, and his looks fell upon two living eyes.

“Well?” asked Mac, for it was he who still survived in that shambles of a cabin.

“It’s done; they’re all dead,” answered Carthew.

“Christ!” said the Irishman, and fainted.

The gin was found in the dead captain’s cabin; it was brought on deck, and all hands had a dram, and attacked their farther task.  The night was come, the moon would not be up for hours; a lamp was set on the main hatch to light Amalu as he washed down decks; and the galley lantern was taken to guide the others in their graveyard business.  Holdorsen, Hemstead, Trent, and Goddedaal were first disposed of, the last still breathing as he went over the side; Wallen followed; and then Wicks, steadied by the gin, went aloft with a boathook and succeeded in dislodging Hardy.  The Chinaman was their last task; he seemed to be light-headed, talked aloud in his unknown language as they brought him up, and it was only with the splash of his sinking body that the gibberish ceased.  Brown, by common consent, was left alone.  Flesh and blood could go no further.