Once I thought it was mine; for a great crashing shot came past me out of the darkness, spinning my basket round like a top, and lodging fair in the hole I was mending.

Scarce had I time to thank God for my escape, when the man next me uttered a cry and flung up his arms; and there he hung a moment, pinned to the stern by a cloth-yard arrow which pierced his back, before he tumbled over, a dead man, into the sea.

One after another of our comrades dropped, till at last it seemed to me Ludar and I alone were left.
"Humphrey," he said, when at last we stood on deck, "I reckon we be almost quits with the King of Spain by now." "Ay indeed," said I, "and I think further that they who dream of us far away need not despair.

For assuredly Heaven wants something more of us before we go under; else we had not been standing here." But whatever Heaven wanted of us, the ship's master angrily ordered us off to the forecastle, to look to the tackle of the bowsprit.

This, but for the plunging of the vessel, was safe work compared with our labour on the poop; for here we were clear of the enemy's shot.