And all the time his red eyes roamed the seas and his hands, clenched and rigid on the wheel, dropped blood.
"I go below," said Da Costa nervously.

"His wife, his daughter--" he darted down the companionway and was gone.
Huldricksson, silent once more, had slumped down over the wheel.
Da Costa's head appeared at the top of the companion steps.
"There is nobody, nobody," he paused--then--"nobody--nowhere!" His hands flew out in a gesture of hopeless incomprehension.

"I do not understan'." Then Olaf Huldricksson opened his dry lips and as he spoke a chill ran through me, checking my heart.
"The sparkling devil took them!" croaked Olaf Huldricksson, "the sparkling devil took them! Took my Helma and my little Freda! The sparkling devil came down from the moon and took them!" He swayed; tears dripped down his cheeks.

Da Costa moved toward him again and again Huldricksson watched him, alertly, wickedly, from his bloodshot eyes.
I took a hypodermic from my case and filled it with morphine.

I drew Da Costa to me.
"Get to the side of him," I whispered, "talk to him." He moved over toward the wheel.
"Where is your Helma and Freda, Olaf ?" he said.
Huldricksson turned his head toward him.