op."

So saying I made a dash for the main-deck entrance of the saloon, which
I locked, slipping the key into my pocket. Then I followed the rest of
the party up on to the poop, and bade them pull the two poop-ladders up
after them. The poop and topgallant forecastle thus formed two
citadels, of a sort, capable of being pretty fairly defended, except in
the face of an overwhelming force.

"Now, lads," cried I, "load your muskets again, and pepper the savages
as they swarm in over the bulwarks; and if we cannot turn back the rush
by that means, I look to you, Simpson and Jones, to sweep the main-deck
clear with the carronades. But do not fire them until you see that it
is absolutely necessary in order to save the ship. Here they come; now,
lads, stand by!"

As the last words left my lips the leading canoes dashed alongside, and
the next instant some thirty or forty savages could be seen scrambling
over the bulwarks and leaping down on the main-deck. They seemed
somewhat disconcerted at finding no one to oppose them, and paused
irresolutely as though not quite knowing what to do, and perhaps fearing
a trap of some sort. Meanwhile others came close upon their heels;
while the general and his volunteers suddenly found their hands full in
repelling an attack upon the poop by way of the mizzen chains. As for
that part of the crew that had retired to the poop at my order, I formed
them up along the fore end of the structure; and now, as, one after
another, they reloaded their muskets, they and their comrades on the
topgallant-forecastle opened a brisk, if somewhat irregular, fire upon
the multitude of savages who came pouring in over the bulwarks into the
waist of the ship. By the light of the musketry flashes I saw several
of the savages throw up their arms and fall to the deck--so many of
them, indeed, in proportion to the number of shots fired, that I felt
convinced many of the bullets must be doing double or triple duty. But
for every savage who fell at least half a dozen fresh ones came in over
the bulwarks to take his place, and I soon recognised that such musketry
fire as ours must be absolutely ineffectual to deal with the
overwhelming odds brought against us. And how warmly I congratulated
myself that I had not been foolish enough to attempt anything like a
systematic defence of the waist of the ship. Had I done that we should
have all been exterminated within the first minute of the attack. As it
was w