"Take a drop just by way of a medicine to keep you awake and tide you
over this bout; and, by good luck, your man Gunter has some grog left in
that bottle he got yesterday from the Coper."

"Billy," said David, in a quiet voice, without deigning a reply to his
foe, "Billy, my lad, you fetch me a pot o' coffee or tea--whatever's
ready, an' let it be hot."

"Yes, father," said Billy, hastening smartly to obey, for he had a very
slight suspicion of the conflict that was raging, though his conceptions
were far, far short of the reality.

The demon received a staggering blow that time, and he slunk away
scowling when he noted the gleam of satisfaction on the victor's face as
he handed back the empty pot to his son.

Warfare! yes, little do those who are "dead in trespasses and sins," and
those who swim gaily with the current of self-indulgence, know of the
ferocious fights, the raging storms, that are going on all round them on
battle-grounds which, to all outward appearance, are calm and
undisturbed.

But we have said that this was merely skirmishing outside the gate.

It was not till the afternoon referred to at the beginning of this
chapter that the grand assault was made.

On that day the skipper of the _Evening Star_ had been subjected to more
than ordinary troubles. In the first place, he had brought up a dead
man in his net along with the fish--a by no means unknown incident in
trawl-fishing experience, for bodies of men who have been washed out of
vessels in gales, or drowned in other ways, are sometimes entangled in
the gear and brought to the surface. At other times bales and boxes--
goods that have been cast away or wrecked--are fished up in this way.

Being in a depressed state of mind, the sight of the dead man made David
uncomfortable for a time, but, having thrown the corpse overboard again,
he soon forgot it. The next thing that happened was the fishing up of
an enormous mass of wreckage, which tore the net almost to pieces, and
compelled him to bend on a new one. This was not only a heavy loss of
itself, but entailed the loss of the fish that would otherwise have been
in the net and poor David Bright, already at zero in his spirits, sank
considerably below that point.

But the final disaster was reserved for a later hour. The new net had
been shot, and one of the best banks of the fishing-ground had been gone
over. The breeze which had carried the fleet along was just beginning
to die down wh