t-moving schooner, each man grasping a
single spear in his right hand and three or four more and a war club in
his left, the whole of them yelling like demons. At that moment Chips
appeared under the bows, and the sight of him was greeted by the savages
with a howl of exultation, for they seemed to think that since he was
down on the sand they had him in their power. But the carpenter knew
perfectly well what he was about, and as the stem of the gliding
schooner slid past him he made a spring at her wire bobstay, caught it
first with one hand, then with the other, pulled himself up and flung
his legs over it, and then rapidly hauled himself up it to the bowsprit
end, which he reached just as the schooner plunged into the water, swung
himself astride the spar, and so worked his way inboard. But it was
touch and go with him, for the moment he showed himself about a dozen of
the leading natives pulled up short and prepared to hurl their spears at
him, and I am convinced that but for the hot revolver fire which we
instantly opened upon the daring savages, bowling three of them over and
so seriously disconcerting the aim of the others that they missed,
Master Chips would, even at the last moment, have lost the number of his
mess. But with the plunge of the schooner into the water all danger was
over, for the little craft held her way in the most wonderful fashion,
making so long a stern board into the waters of the bay that she shot
far beyond the extreme range of the savages' spears before she finally
came to rest.

Meanwhile her canvas was all loose and ready for setting; therefore the
moment I felt her to be water borne I dashed aft to the tiller, at the
same time shouting to the others to man the foresail and fore staysail
halyards and hoist away: and by the time the foresail was hoisted the
vessel was beginning to lose sternway, whereupon I jammed her tiller
hard-over to port, and thus canted her with her head to the northward.
This caused her head sails to fill, whereupon she quickly gathered
headway, when, putting the helm hard up, I headed her out to sea, while
the others proceeded to set the jib and mainsail; and within ten minutes
of her first plunge into the water the little _Nautilus_--as we named
her--was clear of the reef and fairly in the open sea.

There were several trifling jobs that we would have preferred to finish
off before proceeding to sea, several articles that we would fain have
carried away fr