yes, and slipped my knife back
into his sheath, I set to work to look round and see if there was
anybody else that had escaped besides myself. But I couldn't see
nobody; and while I was peerin' round here and there into the black
hollows between the seas, I catches sight of another flash in the sky,
and looks up fully expectin' to see another o' them awful fire-balls.
But it was only one o' your rockets burstin' up aloft; and lookin'
underneath the place when I floated up to the top of a sea, there I sees
your to'ga'nts'ls and the upper half of your taups'ls; and I understood
in a minute as you'd obsarved what had happened and meant to come and
see if there was any of us left. Then I began hailin', in hopes of
hearin' a reply from some of the lads; but there weren't a sound come to
me exceptin' the moan of the wind and the hiss of the sea round about;
so at last I knew that all hands exceptin' myself had gone to the bottom
with the good ship, leavin' me alone to tell the tale."

"What an extraordinary class of men sailors are!" remarked Sir Edgar, as
the man Martin, having brought his narrative to a conclusion, and being
dismissed by me, turned and shambled away forward with the usual
careless, leisurely gait affected by forecastle Jack. "Here is a man
who has just escaped--and is, moreover, the only survivor of--a
catastrophe absolutely unique, I should say, in naval history, yet he is
as unconcerned and undemonstrative over it as though the destruction of
a ship by a meteorite were quite an everyday occurrence. Is such
extraordinary _sang-froid_ usual, or is this an exceptional example?"

"Oh dear, no," I laughingly replied; "there is nothing in the least
unusual in Martin's demeanour, which, however, is doubtless partly
assumed. It is not regarded as quite correct form to exhibit any
excitement whatever over an adventure of which one's self has been the
hero; but, apart from that, sailors are so accustomed to carry their
lives in their hands, and become so hardened to danger by being
constantly brought face to face with it--often without a second's
warning, and sometimes in the most unexpected shapes--moreover, they
witness from time to time such startling and inexplicable phenomena,
that it is really difficult to provoke anything like a display of
genuine, unmitigated surprise or excitement on their part. Whatever
happens--unless it be something very distinctly suggestive of the
supernatural--Jack is always p