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"Give it to 'em," cried Barney; and I saw Mr Frewen strike one with a revolver in his hand, but using his fist as if he were boxing, and another man went backwards into the boat, while a blow or two from Neb Dumlow's capstan-bar, which Barney had picked up, sufficed to clear the chains.
"Aye, aye, Shipmate, that does ketch me, all aback, shipmate. Why Lord! I'd give a pound, two pound ah, ten! just to have been astarn of him wi' a rope's end, though come to think of it I'd ha' preferred a capstan-bar." "Peterday," said the Sergeant removing his gaze from the wall with a jerk, "on the twenty-fifth instant we shall be without a roof to cover us, and all my doing.
Then our principal vulnerable point was the stay beneath the bowsprit, where he stationed Dumlow, armed with a capstan-bar, which the big sailor prepared to use as a club; the other dangerous points being the chains, where it was possible for a man to climb up by means of a boot-hook.
"Barney, doctor, Neb, come and help here." We all made a rush to the side to help Bob, and our presence was needed, for man after man had now reached the chains, where they waited for Jarette's orders to make a rush. "Here, let me come," cried Dumlow, limping up with his capstan-bar. "Give me room, and I'll clear the lot down."
It was with a capstan-bar that Paul Jones, when hard pressed by a gang on board his ship at Liverpool, was reputed to have stretched three of his assailants dead on deck. Every sailor had heard of that glorious achievement and applauded it, the killing perhaps grudgingly excepted.
He would sail along till he was right in the most exciting part of a yarn, and then say, "Well, as I was saying, the rudder was fouled, ship driving before the gale, head-on, straight for the iceberg, all hands holding their breath, turned to stone, top-hamper giving 'way, sails blown to ribbons, first one stick going, then another, boom! smash! crash! duck your head and stand from under! when up comes Johnny Rogers, capstan-bar in hand, eyes a-blazing, hair a-flying... no, 'twa'n't Johnny Rogers... lemme see ... seems to me Johnny Rogers wa'n't along that voyage; he was along one voyage, I know that mighty well, but somehow it seems to me that he signed the articles for this voyage, but but whether he come along or not, or got left, or something happened "
The first mate lies dead on the deck near the companion, and further forward are Tony Hinks and a seaman with their heads beaten in. The supercargo is defending himself with a capstan-bar against several savages, while the captain stands in one of the quarter boats, which has been lowered partly down, pointing a telescope at the savages, who look at it as if they think it some sort of firearm.
Then I had a capstan-bar from the rack near, and smote with it at the thing, crying all the while for help, and at my blow the thing went from my sight, and the bo'sun was with me, and some of the men.
One blow from a capstan-bar cleared away this obstruction, and the boat swung off. The stay-tackle falls were let go entirely, and all on board saw, with an exultation that words can scarcely describe, the important craft suspended directly over the sea. No music ever sounded more sweetly to the listeners than the first plash of the massive boat as it fell heavily upon the surface of the water.
Other members of the crew were making a pretense of being busy at something in the waist, but they were one and all keeping a close watch on the second mate, and there were hand-spikes, axes, or belaying-pins within easy reach. Jack made a warning gesture to Stebbins, and the sailor at once reached for his capstan-bar.
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