Page:Storys of The bewitched fiddler (1).pdf/14

 from a furnace, increasing every instant in heat and density. It was soon found that all exertion was in vain—the vessel must perish!

From the pumps we ran to the boats; gig hung over the larboard quarter, so as  be lowered in a moment; but we should have lost its valuable services, had not a gentleman threatened to send a bullet through the head of the carpenter, who, insane with terror had brought a hatchet to cut the ropes and drop it at once into the sea. The yawl, a larger boat, was our great difficulty; it was turned, keel upwards, over the long boat, to serve as a roof to the live stock kept in the latter. Many attempts were made, in vain, to raise it from its situation; the long boat was already on fire, by the flames bursting from the main hold. I climbed into it (without feeling that, in doing so I broke my shins severely) to give my assistance; and when we were just ready to despair, the yawl eased and rose, no one knew how, and was over the side and in the water, more quickly, the sailors said, than they had ever before seen it done.

Captain Dacre had already affirmed, in answer to my inquires, that the two boats could not carry all the ship’s company, passengers and crew: and under other circumstances, we should not have dared to try