the bright steel gleamed in the dark, and with a grinding crash that seemed like the end of the world to Colin, the boat crumpled into splinters on the reef and the three men were thrown in a heap among the breakers.
The negro gave a yell that was enough to scare any one out of a year's growth and lay spread out upon a rock as though he was some ungainly kind of black crab, arms and legs in every direction, while he fairly gibbered with fright.
"Lordy, Lordy, don' let de debbil come an' take me now! Lordy, Ah ain' fit to die! Don' let him come back an' smoddeh us on de rocks! Ah ain' never goin' to get in a boat agen! On'y let me get home dis once!"
Paul, though the youngest of the party, had escaped the most easily. He had pitched clear against Pete and thus had broken his fall, while at the same time the impact of his weight had knocked nearly all the breath out of the negro's body. He had enough left, however, with which to make a powerful complaint.
Bruised, even bleeding in one or two places, Colin picked himself out of the wreckage and looked across in the faint light at the owner of the Golden Falcon, who seemed to have escaped
with a few scratches and who was standing on the reef looking out to sea as though he wished that the fight were still on.
Manta, or Giant Sea-Devil, Captured on the Florida Reefs.
By permission of Mr. Chas. Fredk. Holder.