"'Twas vain to think of hindering them, few as we were, and scarce able to see what they did for the fog; but the land-breeze already blew pretty fresh, and the ebb rushing on her bows made the Indiaman heave to it as her jib rose from the boom. I had no time to stand upon ceremony--to think of the pilotage again--with the savages, the narrow channel in the dusk, and the breakers together, was quite enough. "In the very nick of such a breathless moment, I had just fancied I caught the stroke of their paddles coming on--when all at once, out of the open cabin-skylight aft, rose a sound, the like of which I never heard in my life--between a yell and a cry; but the mouth of the skylight seemed to send it up higher than the mast-heads, loud and long, into the slit of starlight between the fog. For a single second the marrow curdled in my bones, and I lost all thought even of the canoes ahead, 'twas so unearthly; till, catching a glimpse of Violet's white figure crouching in terror to the round-house door, I rushed aft, and looked down at the cuddy. It was all black as midnight below, the stink of the swinging lamp coming out; but by the horrible tumbling, staggering, struggling sound inside, you'd have thought it full of some awful thing, doing God knows what in the place--then a thump and a groan. I scarce believe I could have mustered heart to go down the companion and see--till next moment the Scotch mate's bare head and his shoulders came thrusting up out of the stair, wrestling wildly with three or four pitch-black naked figures--the narrow booby-hatch hindering them from sticking together to him, except one that leapt out almost on his back, aiming a fierce stroke with a club at his skull. Quick as thought, however, my coolness had come back to me, and I just sent the bullet from the ship's musket I had snatched up fair flash through his lungs, the blood spouting out of his mouth almost over us, as he spun round with his club in the air, and fell back--while smash after smash I brought the stock of my piece down on the crowns of the others, trying to get on deck too thick together; and Macleod was doing the same like a man, at the skylight, where they were catching at the edge of the frame. The shrieks of the ladies came off the poop above; and as for the men, they were dodging under the forecastle bulwarks as they fired at the canoes ahead, from the spears and arrows that came whistling over, and quivering into the planks near me. What else the fiendish wretches might be doing I didn't know, but I had no sooner managed to shove the scuttle over the booby-hatch, the second mate loading as fast as he could, and blazing away down into the skylight like a perfect devil, lighting up the black faces and sharp teeth of the savages below at every shot, rushing back, than I felt the Indiaman was broadside on to the tide and current, sweeping down to open the next reach with her jib and topsail full to the land-breeze. I sprang back to