emy had a
dozen rallying cries, and these confused them. But as their other
ship-commanders one by one were killed, and Dason remained, active
with mischief, "Dason!" became the shout which was thrown back at us in
response to our "Tob!"

However, I will not load my page with farther long account of this
obscure sea-fight, whose only glory was its ferocity. One by one all the
ships of either side were sunk or lay with all their people killed, till
finally only Dason's galley and our own "Bear" were left. For the moment
we were being mastered. We had a score of men remaining out of all those
that manned the navy when it sailed from Yucatan, and the enemy had
boarded us and made the decks of the "Bear" the field of battle. But
they had been over busy with the throwing fire, and presently, as we
raged at one another, the smoke and the flame from the sturdy vessel
herself let us very plainly know that she was past salvation.

But Tob was nothing daunted. "They may stay here and fry if they
choose," he shouted with his great boisterous laugh, "but for ourselves
the galley is good enough now. Keep a guard on Deucalion, and come with
me, shipmates!"

"Tob!" our fellows shouted in their ecstasy of fighting madness, and I
too could not forbear sending out a "Tob!" for my battle-cry. It was a
change for me not to be leader, but it was a luxury for once to fight
in the wake of this Tob, despite his uncouthness of mien and plan. There
was no stopping this new rush, though progress still was slow. Tob with
his bloody axe cut the road in front, and we others, with the lust of
battle filling us to the chin, raged like furies in his wake. Gods! but
it was a fight.

Ten of us won to the galley, with the flames and the smoke from the poor
"Bear" spurting at our heels. We turned and stabbed madly at all who
tried to follow, and hacked through the grapples that held the vessels
to their embrace. The sea-swells spurned the "Bear" away.

The slaves chained to the rowing-galley's benches had interest neither
one way nor the other, and looked on the contest with dull concern, save
when some stray missile found a billet amongst them. But a handful of
the fighting men had scrambled desperately on board the galley after us,
preferring any fate to a fiery death on the "Bear," and these had to be
dealt with promptly. Three, with their fighting fury still red-hot in
them, had most wastefully to be killed out of mischief's way; five, who
had pi