us very plainly know that she was past salvation.

But Tob was nothing daunted. "They may stay here and fry if they
choose," he shouted with his great boisterous laugh, "but for
ourselves the galley is good enough now. Keep a guard on
Deucalion, and come with me, shipmates!"

"Tob!" our fellows shouted in their ecstasy of fighting
madness, and I too could not forbear sending out a "Tob!" for my
battle-cry. It was a change for me not to be leader, but it was a
luxury for once to fight in the wake of this Tob, despite his
uncouthness of mien and plan. There was no stopping this new rush,
though progress still was slow. Tob with his bloody axe cut the
road in front, and we others, with the lust of battle filling us to
the chin, raged like furies in his wake. Gods! but it was a fight.

Ten of us won to the galley, with the flames and the smoke from
the poor "Bear" spurting at our heels. We turned and stabbed
madly at all who tried to follow, and hacked through the grapples
that held the vessels to their embrace. The sea-swells spurned the
"Bear" away.

The slaves chained to the rowing-galley's benches had interest
neither one way nor the other, and looked on the contest with dull
concern, save when some stray missile found a billet amongst them.
But a handful of the fighting men had scrambled desperately on
board the galley after us, preferring any fate to a fiery death on
the "Bear," and these had to be dealt with promptly. Three, with
their fighting fury still red-hot in them, had most wastefully to
be killed out of mischief's way; five, who had pitched their