The Sultan was on her beamends, and what was more, seemed inclined to stay there, so that I, holding on by the bulwarks, saw the sea seething and boiling almost beneath my feet, which were swinging clear off the deck.
But the midshipman sung out that she was righting again, which she did rather quicker than was desirable, bringing every loose article on deck down to our side again with a rush.

A useless, thundering, four-pounder gun, of which terrible implements of war we carried six, came plunging across from the other side of the deck, and went crashing through the bulwarks, out into the sea, within two feet of my legs.
"I think," I said, trying to persuade myself that I was not frightened, "I think I shall go into the cuddy." That was not very easy to do.

I reached the door, and got hold of the handle, and, watching my opportunity, slipped dexterously in, and making a plunge, came against the surgeon, who, seated on a camp-stool, was playing piquette, and overthrew him into a corner.
"Repique, by jingo," shouted Sam Buckley, who was the surgeon's opponent.

"See what a capital thing it is to have an old friend like Hamlyn, to come in and knock your opponent down just at the right moment." "And papa was losing, too, Uncle Jeff," added a handsome lad, about fifteen, who was leaning over Sam's shoulder.
"What are they doing to you, Doctor ?" said Alice Buckley, NEE Brentwood, coming out of a cabin, and supporting herself to a seat by her husband and son.
"Why," replied the surgeon, "Hamlyn knocked me down just in a moment of victory, but his nefarious project has failed, for I have kept possession of my cards.

Play, Buckley." Let us give a glance at the group which is assembled beneath the swing lamp in the reeling cabin.