llowers
below.

It was still very dark; the schooner's crew had rushed up at the first
alarm, and as fast as they cleared the combings of the hatch, they
dashed at their assailants, with the consequence that in a very few
seconds the deck was a confusion of struggling, yelling, and cursing
men, the two parties fighting hard for their different aims, to beat the
defenders below--to drive the attacking party overboard into their boat
or into the river--anywhere to clear the deck.

It was a wild and savage affair, the energy of desperation being fully
developed on either side. Weapons were little used, for the two parties
closed in a fierce struggle, or else struck out with their fists; and as
the two parties were pretty well balanced for numbers, the fight was
obstinate to a degree.

Cheering on his men, Mark had been one of the first to leap on deck,
and, once there, he had dashed, dirk in hand, at the first sailor he
encountered, and immediately found out that even if armed with a dirk, a
middy of seventeen is no match for a sturdy, well-built fellow of
thirty; and though he caught his adversary by the throat with one hand,
and pointed his dirk with the other, as he bade the man surrender,
matters went badly for him.

For the man, who knew that the capture of the vessel meant endless
trouble and loss to him, had not the slightest intention of surrendering
to a mere boy, and in two vigorous efforts he sent Mark's dirk flying in
one direction, and hurled him in another so violently that the lad fell
heavily on his head and shoulder, and for the space of two minutes there
was no one to hold the command.

But Mark's semi-insensibility only lasted those two minutes; then he was
fully awake to the shouting and struggling going on around and over him.
Naturally objecting to be trampled, jumped upon, and used as a
stumbling-block for friends and enemies to fall over, he exerted himself
to get out of the way, rolled over and found his dirk beneath him, rose
to his feet, aching, half-stunned, and, in pain intense enough to enrage
him, he once more rushed at the nearest man, roaring to his followers to
come on.

The orders were unnecessary, for the men had come on, and were locked in
the embrace of their enemies, but the cry stimulated the brave fellows
to fresh exertion, and to the rage and mortification of the Yankee
skipper, the schooner's crew were driven back step by step aft, till the
next thing seemed to be that th