he'll find that a bolder and a better man has gone
before him!" shouted a dozen at once; some of whom immediately gave very
unequivocal demonstrations of an intention to put their threat in
execution. But two forms instantly sprang from the crowd, and threw
themselves, like angry lions, between Wilder and his foes. The one, who
was foremost in the rescue, faced short upon the advancing seamen, and
with a blow from an arm that was irresistible, level led the
representative of Neptune to his feet, as though he had been a mere waxen
image of a man The other was not slow to imitate his example; and, as the
throng receded before this secession from its own numbers, the latter, who
was Fid, flourished a fist that was as big as the head of a sizeable
infant, while he loudly vociferated,--

"Away with ye, ye lubbers! away with ye! Would you run foul of a single
man, and he an officer and such an officer as ye never set eyes on be
fore, except, mayhap, in the fashion that a cat looks upon a king? I
should like to see the man, among ye all, who can handle a heavy ship, in
a narrow channel, as I have seen master Harry here handle the saucy"--

"Stand back," cried Wilder, forcing himself between his defenders and his
foes. "Stand back, I say, and leave me alone to meet the audacious
villains.

"Overboard with him! overboard with them all!" cried the seamen, "he and
his knaves together!"

"Will you remain silent, and see murder done before your eyes?" exclaimed
Mrs Wyllys, rushing from her place of retreat, and laying a hand eagerly
on the arm of the Rover.

He started like one who was awakened suddenly from a light sleep, looking
her full and intently in the eye.

"See!" she added, pointing to the violent throng below, where every sign
of an increased commotion was exhibiting itself. "See, they kill your
officer, and there is none to help him!"

The look of faded marble, which had so long been seated on his features,
vanished, as his eye passed quickly over the scene. The organs took in the
whole nature of the action at the glance; and, with the intelligence, the
blood came rushing into every vein and fibre of his indignant face.
Seizing a rope, which hung from the yard above his head, he swung his
person off the poop, and fell lightly into the very centre of the crowd.
Both parties fell back, while a sudden and breathing silence succeeded to
a clamour that a moment before would have drowned the roar of a cataract.
Making a