The men were no cowards, and the
captain was brave enough; but what could they do? To stand up was but to
make figure-heads at which the concealed enemy could fire with ghastly
certainty; to fire in return was to waste their ammunition in the air.
The men flung themselves face foremost on the deck, silent and watchful.
Through it all Jim had been sitting crouched over his oar. He, unarmed,
could not have fought had the chance offered; breaking out, once and
again, into the solemn-sounding chant which he had been singing when he
came up in his boat the evening before:--
"O my soul arise in heaven, Lord, for to yearde when
Jordan roll,
Roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll,"--
the words falling in with the sound of the water as it lapsed from them.
"Stop that infernal noise, will you?" cried one of the men, impatiently.
The noise stopped.
"Hush, Harry,--don't swear!" expostulated another, beside whom was lying
a man mortally wounded. "This is awful! 'tain't like going in fair and
square, on your chance."
"That's so,--it's enough to make a fellow pray," was the answer.
Here Russell, putting up his hand, took hold of Jim's brawny black one
with a gesture gentle as a woman's. It hurt him to hear his faithful
friend even spoken to harshly. All this, while the hideous shower of
death was dropping about them; the water was ebbing, ebbing,--falling
and running out fast to sea, leaving them higher and drier on the sands;
the gray dawn was steadily brightening into day.
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