It so befell, however, that we were not long to wait before this degrading, loathsome and maddening business of Rotch was settled for us, and this without any demand upon our own ingenuity, though the thing worked out to its issue in strict correspondence with the inhuman devil’s nature and with all that is base and wretched in this narrative. Whether the man had been a little mad at the root all through; whether he really feared that Tom would execute his threat and hang him; whether he supposed that, taking it that Tom did not hang him, he would be fearfully punished for the conspiracy and perjury which Nodder had deposed to; or whether his conscience, working like a fiend, grew too strong for him during his long, solitary hours of imprisonment, he, one day, fulfilled the prediction of the mate and went mad. We were then in the northern verge of the south-east trade-wind, sweeping smoothly toward the Equator. I was asleep in my cabin, and was awakened by a great disturbance and shouts. The hour was some time in the afternoon. By the time I had put on my dress and run out, the cries and sounds of scuffling had ceased; but on stepping a few paces aft, I heard a strange noise of moaning and snapping yells proceeding from Rotch’s cabin. It was such a noise as might be made by a couple of dogs, who, though half dead with worrying each other, still fight on. I ran to the wheel, where I found Will, who told me that while Bates was in Rotch’s cabin, whither he had carried some drinking water, Rotch, giving a loud shout, whipped a table knife out of his bunk; he lunged at Bates, who very nimbly tripped him up, got the knife out of his hand, and lay wrestling on the deck with Rotch, bawling for help. Tom and Collins rushed to his assistance, and amongst them dragged the villain into his berth again. Whilst Will was telling me this, Tom and the others came out of Rotch’s cabin. And now I heard that the man had gone mad, and that to prevent him doing himself or us a mischief they had secured his legs and bound his arms to his side. This was a very great calamity; had he jumped overboard or cut his throat all would have been well, but here now was a madman to watch. Our little ship’s company was miserably few, and the requirements of the brig totally prohibited our telling off any one of us to look after the lunatic fiend. Then again, being mad, his confession (whatever might prove the delirious gabble he chose to regale Mr. Bates with) could be of no use to Tom, who would thus be balked in his iron-hard resolve of carrying him to some part of the seas where he could hang him if he did not confess.