I have long thought that this is the last time the keel of the Water-Witch
will ever plow the American seas. Before I quit you, I would have an
interview with the merchant. A worse man might have fallen, and just now
even a better man might be spared. I hope no harm has come to him?"
"He has shown the steadiness of his Holland lineage, to-day. During the
boarding, he was useful and cool."
"It is well. Let the Alderman be summoned to the deck, for my time is
limited, and I have much to say,-----"
The Skimmer paused, for at that moment a fierce light glared upon the
ocean, the ship, and all in it. The two seamen gazed at each other in
silence and both recoiled, as men recede before an unexpected and fearful
attack. But a bright and wavering light, which rose out of the forward
hatch of the vessel explained all. At the same moment, the deep stillness
which, since the bustle of making sail had ceased, pervaded the ship, was
broken by the appalling cry of "Fire!"
The alarm which brings the blood in the swiftest current to a seaman's
heart, was now heard in the depths of the vessel. The smothered sounds
below, the advancing uproar, and the rush on deck, with the awful summons
in the open air, succeeded each other with the rapidity of lightning. A
dozen voices repeated the word 'the grenade!' proclaiming in a breath both
the danger and the cause. But an instant before, the swelling canvas, the
dusky spars, and the faint lines of the cordage, were only to be traced by
the glimmering light of the stars; and now the whole hamper of the ship
was the more conspicuous, from the obscure back-ground against which it
was drawn in distinct lines.
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