“He shortened the pike and darted at my face on the instant, but catching the thrust on the edge of my blade, I threw the point up into the deck-beam; that instant had been his last, for his defenseless head was within fair sweep of my sword, when from that very state-room, the door of which had been forced open by the flying scabbard, the same figure which I had seen before that night, again appeared, gliding now swiftly and noiselessly between. “The cutlass fell with a clank on the deck, and I stood with outstretched arm, my soul riveted to my gaze, striving in vain to speak, while Catherton staggered back against the mast, covering his eyes with his hands. In the rigid and ghastly lineaments of death I saw, as my heart stood still, the likeness of Ellen; the frozen eyes seemed to hush my very breath; the thin, clay-like lips moved, and, like sigh from a coffin-lid, the whispered words met my ears, ‘Not thus—not thus!’ “‘What—what art thou?’ I gasped out—when old Charley’s voice sounded on deck; a sort of scuffle appeared to get up in the companion-way, and Halil Ben Hamet and his attendant, both sprinkled with blood and covered with soil-stains from sandal to turban, suddenly appeared on the scene. “I stared from the apparition to the chief, and when I looked again, the place where it had stood was vacant. “‘All is lost, my friend,’ said Halil; ‘they are hard on my track, and I have come hither to die with Zuma.’ “At these words the captain recovered himself, and stepping from behind the mast, waved me on deck.