ire to tear him limb from
limb. The wood split, cracked, gave way. Belfast plunged in head and
shoulders and groped viciously. "I've got 'im! Got 'im," he shouted.
"Oh! There!... He's gone; I've got 'im!... Pull at my legs!... Pull!"
Wamibo hooted unceasingly. The boatswain shouted directions:--"Catch
hold of his hair, Belfast; pull straight up, you two!... Pull fair!"
We pulled fair. We pulled Belfast out with a jerk, and dropped him
with disgust. In a sitting posture, purple-faced, he sobbed
despairingly:--"How can I hold on to 'is blooming short wool?" Suddenly
Jimmy's head and shoulders appeared. He stuck halfway, and with rolling
eyes foamed at our feet. We flew at him with brutal impatience, we tore
the shirt off his back, we tugged at his ears, we panted over him; and
all at once he came away in our hands as though somebody had let go
his legs. With the same movement, without a pause, we swung him up. His
breath whistled, he kicked our upturned faces, he grasped two pairs of
arms above his head, and he squirmed up with such precipitation that he
seemed positively to escape from our hands like a bladder full of gas.
Streaming with perspiration, we swarmed up the rope, and, coming into
the blast of cold wind, gasped like men plunged into icy water. With
burning faces we shivered to the very marrow of our bones. Never before
had the gale seemed to us more furious, the sea more mad, the sunshine
more merciless and mocking, and the position of the ship more hopeless
and appalling. Every movement of her was ominous of the end of her agony
and of the beginning of ours. We staggered away from the door, and,
alarmed by a sudden roll, fell down in a bunch. It appeared to us that
the side of the house was more smooth than glass and more slippery
than ice. There was nothing to hang on to but a long brass hook used
sometimes to keep back an open door. Wamibo held on to it and we held on
to Wamibo, clutching our Jimmy. He had completely collapsed now. He did
not seem to have the strength to close his hand. We stuck to him blindly
in our fear. We were not afraid of Wamibo letting go (we remembered
that the brute was stronger than any three men in the ship), but we were
afraid of the hook giving way, and we also believed that the ship had
made up her mind to turn over at last. But she didn't. A sea swept over
us. The boatswain spluttered:--"Up and away. There's a lull. Away aft
with you, or we will all go to the devil here." We st