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Still I persisted in going forward, and Jim followed me. Just then the vessel gave a pitch, which nearly sent me head first down the fore-hatchway. As we got below I heard the sound of a rush of water. The handspike which secured the chief leak had worked out of its place, and the blankets and boards were forced inwards. It required all our remaining strength to put them back.
Our hero had just came aft, and was addressing Mr Saltwell, when the latter looking forward, suddenly exclaimed, "What can that smoke be? Run and see where it comes from!" As Rayner hurried forward he observed a thick volume of smoke rising out of the fore-hatchway, and immediately afterwards a similar ominous cloud ascended from the main hatchway.
I wanted to ascertain who the men were, but none of them spoke I felt pretty sure that one of them was Cobb. Presently I saw Mr Barwell come up the fore-hatchway. I knew him by his dress and figure. "A fine night, Mr Barwell," said I, as he stepped up on the topgallant forecastle. "It's a sort of night you landsmen don't often meet with, I suspect." "Not often, youngster," he answered.
Pretending to drop asleep, he lay perfectly quiet for some time; then sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he staggered away forward, as if still drowsy, to make it be supposed that he was about to turn into his hammock. Finding that he was unobserved, he crept up by the fore-hatchway, where he found Dick, who was in the watch off deck.
Being come to the fore-hatchway I checked there, despite my captors' buffets and curses, to cast a final, long look up, above and round about me, for I had a sudden uneasy feeling, a dreadful suspicion that once I descended into the gloom below I never should come forth alive.
Before, however, the smoke of the pistol which True Blue had fired had cleared off, he had sprung to the side of Paul Pringle and handed him the remaining pistol and a dirk. Paul on this sprang on the Frenchmen. The black was the first to fly. The other two men, finding themselves clearly overmatched, retreated forward and gained the fore-hatchway.
The men came springing up from below, some through the fore-hatchway, but a greater number through the main. The commander himself was standing near the companion-hatch intended only for his own and the gun-room officers' use.
It was the first time I had ever heard it so sent through the furthest recesses of the ship, and well knowing what this generally betokened to other seamen, my heart jumped to my throat, and I hurriedly asked Flute, the boatswain's-mate at the fore-hatchway, what was wanted of me. "Captain wants ye at the mast," he replied. "Going to flog ye, I guess." "What for?"
"Let him take that for his trouble," cried Moggy, turning round, and delivering a swinging box of the ear upon the astonished marine, who, not liking to encounter such an Amazon, made a hasty retreat down the fore-hatchway. "So there you are, are you?" continued Moggy, as Vanslyperken stepped on the deck. "Silence, Moggy." "You, that would flog my own dear darling duck my own Jemmy." "Silence!
It was the first time he had ever heard it sent through the furthest recesses of the ship, and, well knowing what this generally betokened to other seamen, his heart jumped to his throat, and he hurriedly asked Brown, the boatswain's-mate at the fore-hatchway, what was wanted of him. "Captain wants ye at the mast," he answered. "Going to flog ye, I fancy." "What for?"
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