"The boats! The boats!" shouted the men.
"Stay where you are," bellowed Barr, mad with rage, "get that ivory off first."
"To blazes with your ivory," shouted a grizzled old fireman, "do you think we are going to perish aboard here for such an old skinflint as you?"
"Why, if we had time we'd run you up at your own main-gaff you old land-shark," shouted another.
"Come on! the boats—the boats!" they yelled.
Barr stood irresolute while they lowered the four boats that the Brigand carried and piled into them. The shore was only a few miles off and they would reach it in a few hours.
While Barr hesitated he felt the ship give a lurch. She was settling!
That decided him.
Ivory or no ivory he feared such a death as he felt convinced would come to any one unfortunate enough to be aboard the ship in a few hours' time even more than he did the loss of the ivory.
"Hold on!" he shouted to the men in the boats, "I'm coming along."