thing.

It was now midnight.

The captain, Tom and Charley, and one of the English hands who acted as
steward, were down below asleep aft, and three English sailors and four
Greeks were supposed to be in the same somnolent condition in the
foc's'le; and, on deck, were the first mate and four more Englishmen,
one of whom was on duty as lookout forward, and another taking his turn
at the wheel; while four of the foreigners and the remaining two British
seamen lounged about the waist, or stood grouped around the
mainmast-bitts amidships, attentive to the orders of the officer of the
watch, who, being not in the best of tempers, as usual, did not let them
long remain idle for a spell.

That was the situation when the first mate called out, after glancing at
his watch, to "make it eight bells;" and almost at the same moment the
lookout man forward sang out lustily, in a voice that rang through the
ship, "Land ho!"

Whether it was the sound of the ship's bell that gave the signal,
evidently preconcerted beforehand, or the cry that land was in sight,
only the Greek sailors knew; but, at all events, it roused them in a
second to action, for with a fierce cry the four foreigners who were
amidships rushed on the two Englishmen that shared their watch, drawing
their knives and stabbing them desperately as they fell upon them.

"Murder! Help!" sang out the poor Jack tars; but, though caught
unawares, they made a hard fight for their lives, one, a
north-countryman, although stabbed in several places, snatching up a
capstan bar and braining the Greek nearest him like a bullock.

At the same time, the four other Greeks who were down below in the
forecastle and supposed to be sleeping, crept up the hatchway forward,
slipping on the cover as they got on deck, and went to the assistance of
their companions, who, being thus reinforced, made short work of the two
Englishmen, who presently sank senseless on the deck which was weltering
with their gore, and then rushed aft in a body, brandishing their knives
and shouting like demons.

Mr Tompkins showed himself the coward he was, as Tom had anticipated;
for, after hammering on the top of the cabin skylight to rouse those
below, with a belaying pin he had grasped hold of at the sight of the
struggle in the waist, he incontinently scuttled up the mizzen shrouds,
displaying an agility of which one would have never thought him capable.
The steersman followed his example; while the looko