“Time will soon tell.”
The two became silent, and listened and watched. An awful anxiety came upon them. One of the combatants was alive. They could hear him dragging himself through the water toward the opening.
My readers can better imagine the awful suspense of the two young men than I can describe it. A moment seemed an hour. They were sure they could hear their own hearts beating and feel the hot blood leaping through their veins. Their eyes, almost starting from their sockets, became fixed upon the opening.
Suddenly a shadow appeared within it. Something arose in the young men’s throats that seemed to choke them.
Slowly, quite slowly, the shadow was followed by a tuft of dark hair, the shaven skull, the low, dark brow, the glaring eyes, the painted, lacerated face of the savage giant!
CHAPTER XI.
THE RESULT OF THE FIGHT.
A chill of horror crept over the frame of Town. Farnesworth as he saw the bloody face and lacerated shoulders of the savage appear slowly from the hatchway. He shrunk back from the hideous form as from an apparition.
The face of the savage wore a ghastly expression—the eyeballs protruded from their sockets till they rested upon the cheeks—the jaws stood apart and the tongue protruded from the mouth, which was filled with blood and foam.
Clutching the tomahawk in a firmer grasp, Town. advanced toward the savage; but, at the same instant, the form of the giant warrior shot out of the hold and fell limp and motionless in death upon the deck.
Then, up through the hatchway, popped the head and shoulders of Old Tumult, the picture of dolefulness and woe, his face convulsed and his sides shaking in a roar of triumphant laughter.