Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

104 THE PIAZZA TALES
tween two sleepy-looking Africans, this mariner, like
his younger shipmate, was employed upon some —
rigging
splicing a cable— the sleepy-looking blacks performing
the inferior function of holding the outer parts of the
ropes for him.
Upon Captain Delano's approach,
hung his head below its previous level ;
the man at once
the one necessary
for business. It appeared as if he desired to be thought
absorbed, with more than common fidelity, in his task.
Being addressed, he glanced up, but with what seemed
a furtive, diffident air, which sat strangely enough on
his weather-beaten visage, much as if a grizzly bear,
instead of growling and biting, should simper and cast
sheep's eyes. He was asked several questions concerning
the voyage—
questions purposely referring to several
particulars in Don Benito's narrative, not previously
corroborated by those impulsive cries greeting the
visitor on first coming on board. The questions were
briefly answered, confirming all that remained to be
confirmed of the story. The negroes about the windlass
joined in with the old sailor ; but, as they became talka-
tive, he by degrees became mute, and at length quite
glum, seemed morosely unwilling to answer more questions,
and yet, all the while, this ursine air was somehow
mixed with his sheepish one.
Despairing of getting into unembarrassed talk with
such a centaur, Captain Delano, after glancing round
for a more promising countenance, but seeing none,
spoke pleasantly to the blacks to make way for him ;
and so, amid various grins and grimaces, returned to
the poop, feeling a little strange at first, he could hardly
tell why, but upon the whole with regained confidence in
Benito Cereno.
U- How plainly, thought he, did that old whiskerando
yonder betray a consciousness of ill desert. No doubt,