No man could command, as he did who had the least little doubt in his heart of eventual success.

There is even more conviction in a true man's voice than in his eye.
He ordered us overside eight at a time, and me in the first boat with the first eight.
"Fall them in along the first flat place you find on shore, and wait there for me!" said he.

And I said, "Ha, sahib!" wondering as I swung myself down a swaying rope whether my feet could ever find the boat.

But the sailors pulled the rope's lower end, and I found myself in a moment wedged into a space into which not one more man could have been crowded.
The waves broke over us, and there was a very evil surf, but the distance to the shore was short and the sailors proved skilful.

We landed safely on a gravelly beach, not so very much wetter than we had been, except for our legs (for we waded the last few yards), and I hunted at once for a piece of level ground.