"I sprang between him and the box, and dealt him a square left-hander that made him reel. I followed this up with a rib-starter, then with one on the nose.
"Down he went, and he actually prayed for mercy.
"That bulbous nose of his was well tapped, and there was no fear of him taking apoplexy for a while anyhow.
"But when I let him up he seemed to lose control of his senses, for the demon drink was now in the ascendant. He faced me no longer, however, but rushed for poor, faithful Collie, and before I could prevent it, had seized and pitched him overboard.
"The men, untold, rushed to haul the foreyard aback and to lower a boat.
"But he checked them.
"'What! lower a boat for a dog?' he cried.
"'Lower a boat for a man then,' I shouted, 'and just as I was I leapt upon the bulwark and dived off it. Next minute I was alongside Collie. Ay, lads, and alongside something else. A huge shark sailed past us, and passed us so near I could almost have touched him. He must have been fully fifteen feet long.[1] I knew that nothing but splashing and shouting could keep him at bay, and I did both as well as I knew how to.'"
[1] The Scymnus borealis, or Greenland shark, is often eighteen to twenty feet in length.
"But the boat came quickly to our rescue, and we were soon safe on board. The skipper liked me, and did not log my mutinous conduct. In fact he became my friend, and I was apprenticed to his very ship. So I had many and many a voyage to the Sea of Ice after this.