"Why don't you come down and kill me, you murderer?
You can do it! I ain't afraid! There's no one to stop you! Damn sight better dead and outa your reach than alive and in your clutches! Come on, you coward! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!" It was at this stage that Thomas Mugridge's erratic soul brought him into the scene.

He had been listening at the galley door, but he now came out, ostensibly to fling some scraps over the side, but obviously to see the killing he was certain would take place.

He smirked greasily up into the face of Wolf Larsen, who seemed not to see him.

But the Cockney was unabashed, though mad, stark mad.

He turned to Leach, saying: "Such langwidge! Shockin'!" Leach's rage was no longer impotent.