mps to work.

All this time little Billy remained with Sam in the hold. Billy, it
must be confessed, began to cry at the din and uproar, for he could not
make out what it all meant; and the teeth of the poor black, who knew
too well, began to chatter in right earnest, and his heart to quake. It
was, in truth, a very trying time for Sam. He had a lantern with him,
but it gave a very dim, uncertain light; and from the crashing just
above his head, and the rushing sound close to his ear, he knew that the
shots were finding their way in between wind and water, and that the
latter element was gaining a rapid entrance into the ship. Every now
and then the splinters, and occasionally also a shot, which fell through
the hatchways, showed him that death was being dealt rapidly around just
above him; and he dared not therefore move, as he wished to do, to the
orlop-deck, into which the shot of an enemy does not often find its way.
Then, again, the sound of the water washing about below his feet
alarmed him. He began to anticipate the most dreadful of fates.

"De poor little Billy and I will be drowned down here in dis dark hole,
and no one come to look for us. What me do? Oh dear! oh dear! Poor
little Billy!"

Then he wrung his hands bitterly, while Billy stood between his knees,
looking up inquiringly into his face, and wondering what made him so
unhappy. Then Billy cried himself, not exactly knowing why. Then he
stopped and endeavoured, as far as his knowledge of language would carry
him, to ask Sam what was the matter.

"No ask, Billy--no ask," answered Sam, shaking his head mournfully. "De
old ship very ill--hear how she groan and cry!"

Indeed, the sounds which reached their ears were very appalling. The
ship herself groaned and moaned as the water rushed through her, and the
pent-up air made its escape, and the bulkheads creaked loudly, and then
from above came the saddest shrieks and cries. They were from the
cockpit, where the poor mangled fellows who had been brought below were
placed under the hands of the surgeons. Besides all this, there was the
unceasing roar and reverberation of the guns, shaking the ship's sides
as if they were about to fall to pieces; while there was the rattle of
shot, and the crash and tearing of planks, and the rending asunder of
stout timber.

In time Billy got accustomed to the sounds, and did not seem to connect
them with any especial danger to himself and his friends. N