there: but--God help
us!"

And he looked round sadly enough; while no one needed that he should
finish his sentence, or explain his "but."

The fore-mast was gone, the main-yard sprung, the rigging hanging in
elf-locks, the hull shot through and through in twenty places, the deck
strewn with the bodies of nine good men, besides sixteen wounded down
below; while the pitiless sun, right above their heads, poured down a
flood of fire upon a sea of glass.

And it would have been well if faintness and weariness had been all
that was the matter; but now that the excitement was over, the collapse
came; and the men sat down listlessly and sulkily by twos and threes
upon the deck, starting and wincing when they heard some poor fellow
below cry out under the surgeon's knife; or murmuring to each other
that all was lost. Drew tried in vain to rouse them, telling them that
all depended on rigging a jury-mast forward as soon as possible. They
answered only by growls; and at last broke into open reproaches. Even
Will Cary's volatile nature, which had kept him up during the fight
gave way, when Yeo and the carpenter came aft, and told Amyas in a low
voice--

"We are hit somewhere forward, below the waterline, sir. She leaks a
terrible deal, and the Lord will not vouchsafe to us to lay our hands
on the place, for all our searching."

"What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name?" asked Cary,
peevishly.

"What are we to do, in God's name, rather," answered Amyas in a low
voice. "Will, Will, what did God make you a gentleman for, but to know
better than those poor fickle fellows forward, who blow hot and cold at
every change of weather!"

"I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir," said Yeo, who had
overheard the last words, "or we shall get nought done."

Amyas went forward instantly.

"Now then, my brave lads, what's the matter here, that you are all
sitting on your tails like monkeys?"

"Ugh!" grunts one. "Don't you think our day's work has been long
enough yet, captain?"

"You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir? There are enough
of us thrown away already, I reckon, about that wench there."

"Best sit here, and sink quietly. There's no getting home again,
that's plain."

"Why were we brought out here to be killed."

"For shame, men!" cries Yeo, "murmuring the very minute after the Lord
has delivered you from the Egyptians."

Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as better, thank God,