point, there was much likelihood of the weed
trending away to the Eastward, and if this were so, we could square-in
immediately and get the wind upon our quarter, and so make better way.

Now it was the bo'sun's watch from eight of the evening until midnight,
and I, with another man, had the lookout until four bells. Thus it
chanced that, coming abreast of the point during our time of watching,
we peered very earnestly to leeward; for the night was dark, having no
moon until nearer the morning; and we were full of unease in that we had
come so near again to the desolation of that strange continent. And
then, suddenly, the man with me clutched my shoulder, and pointed into
the darkness upon our bow, and thus I discovered that we had come nearer
to the weed than the bo'sun and the second mate had intended; they,
without doubt, having miscalculated our leeway. At this, I turned and
sang out to the bo'sun that we were near to running upon the weed, and,
in the same moment, he shouted to the helmsman to luff, and directly
afterwards our starboard side was brushing against the great outlying
tufts of the point, and so, for a breathless minute, we waited. Yet the
ship drew clear, and so into the open water beyond the point; but I had
seen something as we scraped against the weed, a sudden glimpse of
white, gliding among the growth, and then I saw others, and, in a
moment, I was down on the main-deck, and running aft to the bo'sun; yet
midway along the deck a horrid shape came above the starboard rail, and
I gave out a loud cry of warning. Then I had a capstan-bar from the rack
near, and smote with it at the thing, crying all the while for help, and
at my blow the thing went from my sight, and the bo'sun was with me, and
some of the men.

Now the bo'sun had seen my stroke, and so sprang upon the t'gallant rail,
and peered over; but gave back on the instant, shouting to me to run and
call the other watch, for that the sea was full of the monsters swimming
off to the ship, and at that I was away at a run, and when I had waked
the men, I raced aft to the cabin and did likewise with the second mate,
and so returned in a minute, bearing the bo'sun's cutlass, my own
cut-and-thrust, and the lantern that hung always in the saloon. Now when
I had gotten back, I found all things in a mighty scurry--men running
about in their shirts and drawers, some in the galley bringing fire from
the stove, and others lighting a fire of dry weed to le