t home like salamanders, and looked like a band
of desperate pirates. The fire sparkled in the whites of their eyes,
gleamed on patches of white skin seen through the torn shirts. Each
had the marks as of a battle about him--bandaged heads, tied-up arms, a
strip of dirty rag round a knee--and each man had a bottle between his
legs and a chunk of cheese in his hand. Mahon got up. With his handsome
and disreputable head, his hooked profile, his long white beard, and
with an uncorked bottle in his hand, he resembled one of those reckless
sea-robbers of old making merry amidst violence and disaster. 'The last
meal on board,' he explained solemnly. 'We had nothing to eat all
day, and it was no use leaving all this.' He flourished the bottle and
indicated the sleeping skipper. 'He said he couldn't swallow anything,
so I got him to lie down,' he went on; and as I stared, 'I don't know
whether you are aware, young fellow, the man had no sleep to speak of
for days--and there will be dam' little sleep in the boats.' 'There
will be no boats by-and-by if you fool about much longer,' I said,
indignantly. I walked up to the skipper and shook him by the shoulder.
At last he opened his eyes, but did not move. 'Time to leave her, sir,'
I said, quietly.

"He got up painfully, looked at the flames, at the sea sparkling round
the ship, and black, black as ink farther away; he looked at the stars
shining dim through a thin veil of smoke in a sky black, black as
Erebus.

"'Youngest first,' he said.

"And the ordinary seaman, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand,
got up, clambered over the taffrail, and vanished. Others followed. One,
on the point of going over, stopped short to drain his bottle, and with
a great swing of his arm flung it at the fire. 'Take this!' he cried.

"The skipper lingered disconsolately, and we left him to commune alone
for awhile with his first command. Then I went up again and brought
him away at last. It was time. The ironwork on the poop was hot to the
touch.

"Then the painter of the long-boat was cut, and the three boats, tied
together, drifted clear of the ship. It was just sixteen hours after the
explosion when we abandoned her. Mahon had charge of the second boat,
and I had the smallest--the 14-foot thing. The long-boat would have
taken the lot of us; but the skipper said we must save as much property
as we could--for the under-writers--and so I got my first command. I had
two men with me, a bag o