"Let go or I'll shoot!" But the Jew, deaf and stupid, drew himself along the oar, hand over hand, and in a moment had caught hold of the gunwale of the boat.

It careened on the instant.

There was a great cry.

"Push him off! We're swamping! Push him off!" And one of the women cried to the mate, "Don't let my little girls drown, sir! Push him away! Save my little girls! Let him drown!" It was the animal in them all that had come to the surface in an instant, the primal instinct of the brute striving for its life and for the life of its young.
The engineer, exasperated, caught up the stump of one of the broken oars and beat on the Jew's hands where they were gripped whitely upon the boat's rim, shouting, "Let go! let go!" But as soon as the Jew relaxed one hand he caught again with the other.

He uttered no cry, but his face as it came and went over the gunwale of the boat was white and writhing.
When he was at length beaten from the boat he caught again at the oar; it was drawn in, and the engineer clubbed his head and arms and hands till the water near by grew red.