e bloody, murthering Quaker, I'll have that ivory
ball, or I'll have your life!"

These words produced the same effect upon Jonathan as though a douche
of cold water had suddenly been flung over him. He began instantly to
struggle to free himself, and that with a frantic and vehement violence
begotten at once of terror and despair. So prodigious were his efforts
that more than once he had nearly torn himself free, but still the
powerful arms of his captor held him as in a vise of iron. Meantime,
our hero's assailant made frequent though ineffectual attempts to
thrust a hand into the breeches-pocket where the ivory ball was hidden,
swearing the while under his breath with a terrifying and monstrous
string of oaths. At last, finding himself foiled in every such
attempt, and losing all patience at the struggles of his victim, he
endeavored to lift Jonathan off of his feet, as though to dash him
bodily upon the ground. In this he would doubtless have succeeded had
he not caught his heel in the crack of a loose board of the wharf.
Instantly they both fell, violently prostrate, the captain beneath and
Jonathan above him, though still encircled in his iron embrace. Our
hero felt the back of his head strike violently upon the flat face of
the other, and he heard the captain's skull sound with a terrific crack
like that of a breaking egg upon some post or billet of wood, against
which he must have struck. In their frantic struggles they had
approached extremely near the edge of the wharf, so that the next
instant, with an enormous and thunderous splash, Jonathan found himself
plunged into the waters of the harbor, and the arms of his assailant
loosened from about his body.

The shock of the water brought him instantly to his senses, and, being
a fairly good swimmer, he had not the least difficulty in reaching and
clutching the cross-piece of a wooden ladder that, coated with slimy
sea-moss, led from the water-level to the wharf above.

After reaching the safety of the dry land once more, Jonathan gazed
about him as though to discern whence the next attack might be
delivered upon him. But he stood entirely alone upon the dock--not
another living soul was in sight. The surface of the water exhibited
some commotion, as though disturbed by something struggling beneath;
but the sea-captain, who had doubtless been stunned by the tremendous
crack upon his head, never arose again out of the element that had
engulfed him.