t, approaching and speaking in
broken English. "You can hoult your chaw. There is nothing for you to
cry out about. Gom dis vays."

Still in growing wonderment, and feeling on the whole that I should have
been much better satisfied if I had had with me the brace of revolvers I
had bought that morning, I followed the man down the companion-ladder.

CHAPTER XV

The paddles had already begun to churn in the water, and the vessel
to move slowly, but with a swift vibration in every plank of her which
promised speed when once she had gathered way. I was suspicious enough
already, though in so vague a fashion that I hardly guessed what I
suspected, and I recall the fact that I was not in the least surprised
when I heard a cry from Ruffiano's lips, and saw the old man struggling
in the arms of a big sailor who had clipped him by both elbows from
behind and held him in a position of the most serious disadvantage.
Without reflection, I sprang to his release. I felt a heavy blow between
the shoulders, which would in all probability have taken effect upon my
head but for my sudden movement, and in an instant I was in the middle
of as severe a rough-and-tumble fight as I could remember anywhere.
There were eight or ten people engaged in it, and the whole thing was
so rapid that I had not the faintest idea as to where my opponents came
from. I only know that within five seconds of the time at which I had
left the deck I was somehow back upon it, fighting, as it seemed to me
at the moment, for bare life, though I cannot think at this time of day
that any very serious personal violence was intended towards myself.

I was fighting like mad with half a dozen when we suddenly swerved
altogether against some part of the bulwark which had not been
properly secured, and was probably made to open to afford a gangway for
passengers, or for the unloading of baggage. The rail swung back, and I,
clutching desperately at one of the fellows with whom I was struggling,
fell overboard, and soused into the black water, with the bitter chill
of a rainy spring in it. I think I may say quite honestly that on land I
was a tolerably accomplished sportsman, but I was mainly inland bred as
a boy, and though I could swim, after a fashion, and could also, after
a fashion, handle a pair of sculls, I was a moderately poor creature in
the water. The man I had clutched went down with me, and we both came
up spouting the loathsome Thames water from our mou