and that, too, with a swift current."

"And what the devil is to prevent these minks of which you speak
from shooting us as we double a headland, or are busy in steering
clear of the rocks?"

"The Lord! -- He who has so often helped others in greater
difficulties. Many and many is the time that my head would have
been stripped of hair, skin, and all, hadn't the Lord fi't of my
side. I never go into a skrimmage, friend mariner, without thinking
of this great ally, who can do more in battle than all the battalions
of the 60th, were they brought into a single line."

"Ay, ay, this may do well enough for a scouter; but we seamen like
our offing, and to go into action with nothing in our minds but
the business before us -- plain broadside and broadside work, and
no trees or rocks to thicken the water."

"And no Lord too, I dare to say, if the truth were known. Take
my word for it, Master Cap, that no battle is the worse fi't for
having the Lord on your side. Look at the head of the Big Sarpent,
there; you can see the mark of a knife all along by his left ear:
now nothing but a bullet from this long rifle of mine saved his scalp
that day; for it had fairly started, and half a minute more would
have left him without the war-lock. When the Mohican squeezes my
hand, and intermates that I befriended him in that matter, I tell
him no; it was the Lord who led me to the only spot where execution
could be done, or his necessity be made known, on account of the
smoke. Sartain, when I got the right position, I finished the
affair of my own accord. For a friend under the tomahawk is apt