Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

"Four of you hustle aloft and stand ready to make fast those stays!"

commanded the first mate.

"Rest of you make ready tackle!" shouted the second mate, following

close on Mayo's heels.

The negroes did not stir. They mumbled among themselves.

"Step lively!" insisted the mate.

"'Scuse us, but dat mast done goin' to tumble down," ventured a man.

"Aloft with you, I say!"

Just then the schooner slatted herself on a great roller, and

the starboard stays snapped, one after the other, like mammoth

fiddle-strings. The mast reeled and there was an ominous sound below the

deck.

"She done put a hole into herself!" squealed a sailor.

In the gloom their eyes were gleaming with the fires one beholds in the

eyes of frightened cats.

"Dere she comes!" shouted one of them. He pointed trembling finger.

Over the coamings of the fore-hatch black water was bubbling.

Yelping like animals, the sailors stampeded aft in a bunch, bowling over

Mayo and the mates in their rush.

"Stop 'em, captain!" bellowed the first mate, guessing their intent.

He rose and ran after them. But fright gave them wings for their

heels. They scampered over the roof of the after-house, and were on the

quarter-deck before the skipper was out of the alley. They leaped into

the yawl which was swung at the stern davits.

"You renegades!" roared the master. "Come out of that boat!"

With the two mates at his heels he rushed at them. They grabbed three

struggling men by the legs and dragged them back. But the negroes

wriggled loose, driven to frantic efforts by their panic. They threw

themselves into the boat again.

"Be men!" clamored Mayo, joining the forces of discipline. "There's a

woman aboard here!"

But the plea which might have affected an Anglo-Saxon did not prevail.

Their knives were out--not for attack on their superiors, but to slash

away the davit tackle.

"Come on, boys! Throw 'em out!" shouted the master, leading the way into

the yawl over the rail.

His two mates and Mayo followed, and the engineer, freshly arrived from

forward, leaped after them. But as fast as they tossed a man upon the

quarter-deck he was up and in the boat again fighting for a place.

"Throw 'em overboard!" roared the master, venting a terrible oath. He

knocked one of the maddened wretches into the sea. The next moment the

captain was flat on his back, and the sailors were trampling on him.