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As the billow rolled on, the boat dropt swiftly, scraping against the ship's side as it fell into the trough of the sea, and escaping an upset almost by a miracle. "Throw a line aboard!" shouted Bax, who stood on the lee bulwarks, high above the crowd, holding on by the mizzen-shrouds. The middy caught up the instrument used for this purpose, and threw a line on board at once.
The yards tumbled down on the caps in an instant as the last word came roaring from Captain Gillespie's lips; and at almost the same moment parties of the men raced up the fore and main and mizzen-shrouds, each lot anxious to have their sail reefed and rehoisted the first.
"How far are they away from the junks?" cried Mr Reardon. "About two hundred yards, sir; you'll see them directly." "Yes, I see them now, sir," cried Barkins, who was a little way up the mizzen-shrouds, where I had not seen him before. "Silence!" cried the captain sternly. "Go on, Mr Herrick; report."
Not a man had gained his feet. Bridge and men swept back toward me and fetched up against the mizzen-shrouds. And then that prodigious, incredible old man appeared out of the water, on his two legs, upright, dragging with him, a man in each hand, the helpless forms of Nancy and the Faun.
She glided under our stern, within hailing distance, and the signal-quarter-master ran up our ensign to the gaff. "Ship ahoy!" cried the Lieutenant of the Watch, through his trumpet. "Halloa!" bawled an old fellow in a green jacket, clap-ping one hand to his mouth, while he held on with the other to the mizzen-shrouds. "What ship's that?"
I must be the last man to quit the ship." Without a word Gascoyne swung himself over the stern, and, sliding down by a rope, dropped into the boat. Montague followed, and they rowed away. Just at that moment Surly Dick sprang on the bulwarks, and holding on by the mizzen-shrouds took off his hat and cheered.
I tell ye I've got to go with her! "The mate just had time to swing himself back into the mizzen-shrouds before the sea broke over her and left the decks bare. The old ship pounded over the bar in an hour or so, and drifted up here on to the beach where she is now. Every man on board was saved except the cap'n. He 'went with her, sure enough.
Every man had saved a little bundle or a bag. Suddenly a conical flame with a twisted top shot up forward and threw upon the black sea a circle of light, with the two vessels side by side and heaving gently in its center. Captain Beard had been sitting on the gratings still and mute for hours, but now he rose slowly and advanced in front of us, to the mizzen-shrouds.
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