erth, letting out with both fists at the wood, in the dark, and
with his mouth wide open for that unceasing cry. Those were loathsome
moments. A cloud driving across the sun would darken the doorway
menacingly. Every movement of the ship was pain. We scrambled about with
no room to breathe, and felt frightfully sick. The boatswain yelled down
at us:--"Bear a hand! Bear a hand! We two will be washed away from here
directly if you ain't quick!" Three times a sea leaped over the high
side and flung bucketfuls of water on our heads. Then Jimmy, startled
by the shock, would stop his noise for a moment--waiting for the ship to
sink, perhaps--and began again, distressingly loud, as if invigorated by
the gust of fear. At the bottom the nails lay in a layer several inches
thick. It was ghastly. Every nail in the world, not driven in firmly
somewhere, seemed to have found its way into that carpenter's shop.
There they were, of all kinds, the remnants of stores from seven
voyages. Tin-tacks, copper tacks (sharp as needles); pump nails with
big heads, like tiny iron mushrooms; nails without any heads (horrible);
French nails polished and slim. They lay in a solid mass more
inabordable than a hedgehog. We hesitated, yearning for a shovel, while
Jimmy below us yelled as though he had been flayed. Groaning, we dug our
fingers in, and very much hurt, shook our hands, scattering nails and
drops of blood. We passed up our hats full of assorted nails to the
boatswain, who, as if performing a mysterious and appeasing rite, cast
them wide upon a raging sea.

We got to the bulkhead at last. Those were stout planks. She was a ship,
well finished in every detail--the Narcissus was. They were the stoutest
planks ever put into a ship's bulkhead--we thought--and then we perceived
that, in our hurry, we had sent all the tools overboard. Absurd little
Belfast wanted to break it down with his own weight, and with both feet
leaped straight up like a springbok, cursing the Clyde shipwrights for
not scamping their work. Incidentally he reviled all North Britain,
the rest of the earth, the sea--and all his companions. He swore, as
he alighted heavily on his heels, that he would never, never any more
associate with any fool that "hadn't savee enough to know his knee from
his elbow." He managed by his thumping to scare the last remnant of wits
out of Jimmy. We could hear the object of our exasperated solicitude
darting to and fro under the planks. He had c