nt had
come, and carried me right up to the very spot at which I was aiming.
My struggles had so much exhausted my strength that I do not think I
could have grasped it, but a strong arm seized mine and lifted me up,
and a voice I recognised as that of Nol Grampus exclaimed--

"All right, mate, here you are!"

Tom Rockets had just before reached the same place, and together they
hauled me up out of the water. Some of the other men had climbed up by
the main-chains, and others by the mizen-chains; but when we all at last
got on deck and I began to muster them, I found that seven poor fellows
were missing. There was no time to grieve about their loss. Our
business was to try and get the crew of the other boat--the jolly-boat--
on board, and to set to work to see if the ship herself could be kept
afloat. Warning them of what had happened, we stood by with ropes to
tell them to approach at the proper time. I waited till the ship was
actually rolling over on that side, and then singing out to them they
got alongside just as she was on an even keel. They were not many
moments in scrambling on board. The boat's falls were happily rove, so
we hooked on and hoisted her up out of harm's way. Not a boat belonging
to the ship remained, and here was I in a sinking craft, with only
twenty-two men instead of the fifty I had expected to have to stand by
me--a dark night--a heavy sea--a gale brewing--not far from an enemy's
shore--not that that mattered much, by-the-bye. Still, thinking about
our condition would do no good--action was what was required. My first
care was to sound the well. There were nine feet of water in the hold.
It was no wonder she tumbled about in the strange way she was doing. It
was only surprising that she kept afloat at all. Grampus proposed
returning to the Charon for more people; but as I thought very likely,
when Captain Luttrell heard that so many had been lost, he would not
allow any more to come, I would not let him go. Besides, I had no fancy
to be left in a sinking ship, without even a boat to take my people and
me off, should she, without more warning, go down. Instead of that I
made my men a speech--a very short one, though--told them that if we set
to work with a will we might yet, without further aid, keep the old
Leviathan at the top of the water till the morning, when more hands
would come to our assistance, and we might probably save some of the
rich cargo on board. They at once s