beneath him.

The officer made his way slowly down the ladder which led into the hold,
and the corporal followed him, and had his chest level with the deck
when the other had reached the bottom. It may have been something in
Ephraim Savage's face, or it may have been the gloom around him which
startled the young Frenchman, but a sudden suspicion flashed into his
mind.

"Up again, corporal!" he shouted, "I think that you are best at the
top."

"And I think that you are best down below, my friend," said the Puritan,
who gathered the officer's meaning from his gesture. Putting the sole
of his boot against the man's chest he gave a shove which sent both him
and the ladder crashing down on to the officer beneath him. As he did
so he blew his whistle, and in a moment the hatch was back in its place
and clamped down on each side with iron bars.

The sergeant had swung round at the sound of the crash, but Amos Green,
who had waited for the movement, threw his arms about him and hurled him
overboard into the sea. At the same instant the connecting rope was
severed, the foreyard creaked back into position again, and the
bucketful of salt water soused down over the gunner and his gun, putting
out his linstock and wetting his priming. A shower of balls from the
marines piped through the air or rapped up against the planks, but the
boat was tossing and jerking in the short choppy waves and to aim was
impossible. In vain the men tugged and strained at their oars while the
gunner worked like a maniac to relight his linstock and to replace his
priming. The boat had lost its weigh, while the brigantine was flying