recoiled in
terror.

"Surrender!" exclaimed Lieutenant Meredith in a loud stern voice; and
the men, frightened by the force opposed to them, might possibly have
submitted, when, at the moment that Snowball made his onslaught on their
leader, Jack Harvey, who stood by his captain on the poop, rather
injudiciously fired off a shot from his revolver, which struck and broke
one of the Malays' outstretched arms, with crease uplifted ready to stab
his enemies.

With a ferocious yell the band again rushed forward.

"Fire!" said the lieutenant; and with one report the blue-jackets
delivered a volley which stretched four Malays in front of them lifeless
on the deck; and then rushing forward with their drawn cutlasses, a
terrific hand-to-hand fight ensued. Captain Morton and his officers on
the poop fired into the mass of the Malays, and then leaped down to join
the fray; and the boatswain, with Jem Backstay and the other sailors
from the forecastle, caught up handspikes and fell upon their rear.

Even in the very midst of the fierce struggle Snowball and the serang,
in deadly embrace, were rolling on the deck, each trying to get the
upper hand so as to be able to use their knives. Neither could succeed
in shaking the other off; and as the two rolled and twisted together
about the deck, now a mass of blood and gore, they gradually edged away
from the thick of the fight, until they rolled together close to the
fore-hatch; then, with one vigorous effort, the black cook, as if he had
reserved his final _coup_ until he had wearied the other out, lifted the
Malay over the combing of the hatchway, and both tumbled into the fore-
hold, with a smash and crash which even made itself heard above the din,
the black cook shouting out as he felt himself falling, dragging his
enemy with him, "Golly, yer yeller beggar, I got you at last!"

While this episode was being acted, the Malays were still fighting
desperately with their creases, a formidable weapon in the hands of men
fighting for their lives; and many of the tars were wounded, and one or
two killed. The Malays stood in a group at bay, and fought on
desperately, like rats driven into a corner, their numbers being still
but little inferior to those of their opponents. At this moment the
woolly head of Snowball appeared above the fore-hold with a triumphant
grin on his black face, all wet with perspiration; and in a second he
leaped on the deck, carrying on his shoulder the body