Placing his shoulders against his sea-chest, and his feet against the door, his body in nearly a horizontal position, he made a violent effort to break open the door.

The lock gave way, but the door did not open more than one or two inches; for Jackson, to make sure, had coiled down against it a hawser which lay a few yards further forward in the steerage, the weight of which the strength of no five men could remove.

Maddened with the idea of perishing by such treachery, Newton again exerted his frantic efforts--again and again, without success.

Between each pause, the voices of the seamen asking for the oars and other articles belonging to the long-boat, proved to him that every moment of delay was _a nail in his coffin_.

Again and again were his efforts repeated with almost superhuman strength; but the door remained fixed as ever.