Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

BENITO CEEENO 139
the same night he meant to betray % What imported
all those day-long enigmas and contradictions, except
to some
they were intended to mystify, preliminary
stealthy blow 1 Atuf al, the pretended rebel, but punctual
shadow, that moment lurked by the threshold without.
He seemed a sentry, and more. Who, by his own
confession, had stationed him there ? Was the negro
now lying in wait ?
The Spaniard behind— his creature before : to rush
from darkness to light was the involuntary choice.
The next moment, with clenched jaw and hand, he
passed Atufal, and stood unharmed in the light. As he
saw his trim ship lying peacefully at anchor, and almost
within ordinary call ; as he saw his household boat,
with familiar faces in it, patiently rising and falling on
the short waves by the San Dominick's side and ; then,
glancing about the decks where he stood, saw the oakum-
pickers still gravely plying their fingers ; and heard the
low, buzzing whistle and industrious hum of the hatchetpolishers,
still bestirring themselves over their endless
occupation ; and more than all, as he saw the benign
aspect of nature, taking her innocent repose
in the
evening ; tKe screened sun in the quiet camp of the
west shining out like the mild light from Abraham's
tent ; as charmed eye and ear took in all these, with
the chained figure of the black, clenched jaw and hand
relaxed. Once again he smiled at the phantoms which
had mocked him, and felt something like a tinge of
remorse, that, by harbouring them even for a moment,
he should, by implication, haye^betrayed -an -atheist
doubt of the ever-watchful Providence above.
There was a few minutes' delay, while, in obedience
to his orders, the boat was being hooked along to the
gangway. During this interval, a sort of saddened
satisfaction stole over Captain Delano, at thinking of
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