nst it a hawser which lay a few yards further
forward in the steerage, the weight of which the strength of no five men
could remove. Maddened with the idea of perishing by such treachery,
Newton again exerted his frantic efforts--again and again, without
success. Between each pause, the voices of the seamen asking for the
oars and other articles belonging to the long-boat, proved to him that
every moment of delay was _a nail in his coffin_. Again and again were
his efforts repeated with almost superhuman strength; but the door
remained fixed as ever. At last, it occurred to him that the hawser,
which he had previously ascertained by passing his hand through the
small aperture which he had made, might only lay against the lower part
of the door, and that the upper part might be free. He applied his
strength above, and found the door to yield: by repeated attempts he at
last succeeded in kicking the upper panels to pieces, and having forced
his body through the aperture, Newton rushed on deck with the little
strength he had remaining.

The men--the boat--were not there: he hailed, but they heard him not; he
strained his eyes--but they had disappeared in the gloom of the night;
and Newton, overcome with exhaustion and disappointment, fell down
senseless on the deck.

Chapter XVII

"_Paladore_--I have heard,
Have read bold fables of enormity,
Devised to make men wonder, and confirm
The abhorrence of our nature; but this hardness
Transcends all fiction."
"_Law of Lombardy_."

We must now relate what had occurred on deck during the struggle of
Newton to escape from his prison. At one o'clock Jackson had calculated
that in an hour, or less, the brig would strike on the reef. He took the
helm from the man who was steering, and told him that he might go below.
Previous to this, he had been silently occupied in coiling the hawser
before the door of Newton's cabin, it being his intention to desert the
brig, with the seamen, in the long-boat, and leave Newton to perish.
When the brig dashed upon the reef, which she did with great violence,
and the crew hurried upon deck, Jackson, who was calm, immediately
proceeded to give the orders which he had already arranged in his mind;
and the coolness with which they were given quieted the alarm of the
seamen, and allowed them time to recall their scattered senses. This,
however, proved unfortunate for Jackson. Had they all hurried in the
boat at once, and