chase.

I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind came again in a clap;
she filled on the port tack, and was off again, stooping and skimming
like a swallow.

My first impulse was one of despair, but my second was towards joy. Round
she came, till she was broadside on to me--round still till she had
covered a half, and then two-thirds, and then three-quarters of the
distance that separated us. I could see the waves boiling white under her
forefoot. Immensely tall she looked to me from my low station in the
coracle.

And then, of a sudden, I began to comprehend. I had scarce time to
think--scarce time to act and save myself. I was on the summit of one
swell when the schooner came stooping over the next. The bowsprit was
over my head. I sprang to my feet, and leaped, stamping the coracle under
water. With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my foot was lodged
between the stay and the brace; and as I still clung there panting, a
dull blow told me that the schooner had charged down upon and struck the
coracle, and that I was left without retreat on the _Hispaniola_.

CHAPTER XXV

I STRIKE THE JOLLY ROGER

I had scarce gained a position on the bowsprit, when the flying jib
flapped and filled upon the other tack, with a report like a gun. The
schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse; but next moment, the
other sails still drawing, the jib flapped back again, and hung idle.

This had nearly tossed me off into the sea; and now I lost no time,
crawled back along the bowsprit, and tumbled head-foremost on the deck.

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the main-sail, which was
still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck. Not
a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had not been swabbed since the
mutiny, bore the print of many feet; and an empty bottle, broken by the
neck, tumbled to and fro like a live thing in the scuppers.

Suddenly the _Hispaniola_ came right into the wind. The jibs behind me
cracked aloud; the rudder slammed-to; the whole ship gave a sickening
heave and shudder, and at the same moment the main-boom swung inboard,
the sheet groaning in the blocks, and showed me the lee after-deck.

There were the two watchmen, sure enough: red-cap on his back, as stiff
as a handspike, with his arms stretched out like those of a crucifix, and
his teeth showing through his open lips; Israel Hands propped against the
bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his hands