with their axes," shouted the
captain.

Chissel and his mates quickly obeyed the summons, for he had seen from
the first that his services would too probably be required.

"Stand by, to cut away the masts," added Captain Poynder.

It was a melancholy alternative, but the only one to save the ship from
foundering. Afterwards we must trust to our anchors; and if they failed
to hold with the wind as it then was, we could not fail of being driven
on the inhospitable coast of Africa. And who could tell how many might
reach the shore alive!--perhaps none. The uplifted axes gleamed in the
hands of Chissel and his mates, as they stood round the mizen-mast;
others were sent to cut away the shrouds, and clear the wreck of the
mast as it fell. Once more Captain Poynder raised his trumpet to his
lips. It was to give the dire orders to cut, when, at that moment, the
ship with a violent jerk righted herself, and, speedily answering to the
helm, away she flew before the wind. As such a course would very
quickly have brought us up, sail was taken off her; and then, merely
under her spanker and fore-staysail, she was brought to the wind, for it
was discovered that the bowsprit was badly sprung, and that the topsail
sheets were carried away. Happily the squall, having vented its fury on
our heads, quickly passed over, and we were left with much less wind
than before.

"This is all that young beggar Bobby Smudge's doing, I'll warrant," I
heard Ned Grummit, a topman, exclaim, as he came down from aloft. "I
never knowed a chap of that sort who went for to go for to drown
hisself, if he threatened to do mischief, but found means to do it. I
knowed it would be so from the first, and we shall be lucky if worse
doesn't come of it."

I tried to expostulate with the man, for whom I had a liking, for he was
an honest fellow; but to no purpose. He still persisted in the belief
that poor Bobby, who, while alive, had never done anybody harm, was
destined to work us all sorts of mischief.

Everything had been made as snug as circumstances would allow. The
watch below had been piped down, and had turned in; and silence reigned
on board, and on the face of the ocean around us. It had been my watch
on deck, and I was just about being relieved, when the silence was
broken by a loud, unearthly cry; and the carpenter rushed on deck in his
shirt, his hair standing on end, and his eyeballs starting from their
sockets. Had not several men l