eward of the
galley, and along the starboard rail there was already a fierce fight,
the men using capstan-bars, even as I had done. Then I thrust the
bo'sun's cutlass into his hand, and at that he gave a great shout, part
of joy, and part of approbation, and after that he snatched the lantern
from me, and had run to the larboard side of the deck, before I was well
aware that he had taken the light; but now I followed him, and happy it
was for all of us in the ship that he had thought to go at that moment;
for the light of the lantern showed me the vile faces of three of the
weed men climbing over the larboard rail; yet the bo'sun had cleft them
or ever I could come near; but in a moment I was full busy; for there
came nigh a dozen heads above the rail a little aft of where I was, and
at that I ran at them, and did good execution; but some had been aboard,
if the bo'sun had not come to my help. And now the decks were full of
light, several fires having been lit, and the second mate having brought
out fresh lanterns; and now the men had gotten their cutlasses, the which
were more handy than the capstan-bars; and so the fight went forward,
some having come over to our side to help us, and a very wild sight it
must have seemed to any onlooker; for all about the decks burned the
fires and the lanterns, and along the rails ran the men, smiting at
hideous faces that rose in dozens into the wild glare of our fighting
lights. And everywhere drifted the stench of the brutes. And up on the
poop, the fight was as brisk as elsewhere; and here, having been drawn by
a cry for help, I discovered the buxom woman smiting with a gory meat-axe
at a vile thing which had gotten a clump of its tentacles upon her dress;
but she had dispatched it, or ever my sword could help her, and then, to
my astonishment, even at that time of peril, I discovered the captain's
wife, wielding a small sword, and the face of her was like to the face of
a tiger; for her mouth was drawn, and showed her teeth clenched; but she
uttered no word nor cry, and I doubt not but that she had some vague idea
that she worked her husband's vengeance.

Then, for a space, I was as busy as any, and afterwards I ran to the
buxom woman to demand the whereabouts of Mistress Madison, and she, in a
very breathless voice, informed me that she had locked her in her room
out of harm's way, and at that I could have embraced the woman; for I had
been sorely anxious to know that my sweethe