his cutlass as he jumped, and when he felt the pistol,
whipped straight round and laid hold of me, roaring out an oath; and at
that either my courage came again, or I grew so much afraid as came to
the same thing; for I gave a shriek and shot him in the midst of the
body. He gave the most horrible ugly groan and fell to the floor. The
foot of a second fellow, whose legs were dangling through the skylight,
struck me at the same time upon the head; and at that I snatched another
pistol and shot this one through the thigh, so that he slipped through
and tumbled in a lump on his companion's body. There was no talk of
missing, any more than there was time to aim. I clapped the muzzle to
the very place and fired.

I might have stood and stared at them for long, but I heard Alan shout
as if for help, and that brought me to my senses.

He had kept the door so long; but one of the seamen, while he was
engaged with others, had run in under his guard and caught him about the
body. Alan was dirking him with his left hand, but the fellow clung like
a leech. Another had broken in and had his cutlass raised. The door was
thronged with their faces. I thought we were lost, and, catching up my
cutlass, fell on them in flank.

But I had not time to be of help. The wrestler dropped at last; and
Alan, leaping back to get his distance, ran upon the others like a bull,
roaring as he went. They broke before him like water, turning, and
running, and falling one against another in their haste. The sword in
his hands flashed like quicksilver into the huddle of our fleeing
enemies; and at every flash there came the scream of a man hurt. I was
still thinking we were lost, when lo! they were all gone, and Alan was
driving them along the deck as a sheep-dog chases sheep.

Yet he was no sooner out than he was back again, being as cautious as he
was brave; and meanwhile the seamen continued running and crying out as
if he was still behind them; and we heard them tumble one upon another
into the forecastle, and clap-to the hatch upon the top.

The round-house was like a shambles; three were dead inside, another lay
in his death-agony across the threshold; and there were Alan and I
victorious and unhurt.

He came up to me with open arms. "Come to my arms!" he cried, and
embraced and kissed me hard upon both cheeks. "David," said he, "I love
you like a brother. And O, man," he cried in a kind of ecstasy, "am I
no' a bonny fighter?"

Thereupon he