"Men cleared out; wasn't the soft job they maybe took
it for. She isn't the first ship that never paid
wages."
I could not but observe that our pace was progressively
relaxing; and, indeed, I have often wondered since
whether the hurry of the start were not intended for
the gallery alone. Certain it is, at least, that when
we had reached the police office, and the mates had
made their deposition, and told their horrid tale of
five men murdered--some with savage passion, some with
cold brutality--between Sandy Hook and San Francisco,
the police were despatched in time to be too late.
Before we arrived the ruffian had slipped out upon the
dock, and mingled with the crowd, and found a refuge in
the house of an acquaintance; and the ship was only
tenanted by his late victims. Well for him that he had
been thus speedy; for when word began to go abroad
among the shore-side characters, when the last victim
was carried by to the hospital, when those who had
escaped (as by miracle) from that floating shambles
began to circulate and show their wounds in the crowd,
it was strange to witness the agitation that seized and
shook that portion of the city.
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