"'Better fire the gun at it,' ses the skipper, in a trembling voice,
looking at the little brass cannon we had for signalling.
"'Better not give him any cause for offence,' ses the mate, shaking his
head.
"'I wonder whether it eats men,' ses the skipper. 'Perhaps it'll come
for some of us.'
"'There ain't many on deck for it to choose from,' ses the mate, looking
at 'im significant like.
"'That's true,' ses the skipper, very thoughtful; 'I'll go an' send all
hands on deck. As captain, it's my duty not to leave the ship till the
LAST, if I can anyways help it.'
"How he got them on deck has always been a wonder to me, but he did it.
He was a brutal sort o' a man at the best o' times, an' he carried on so
much that I s'pose they thought even the sarpint couldn't be worse.
Anyway, up they came, an' we all stood in a crowd watching the sarpint
as it came closer and closer.
"We reckoned it to be about a hundred yards long, an' it was about the
most awful-looking creetur you could ever imagine. If you took all the
ugliest things in the earth and mixed 'em up--gorillas an' the like--
you'd only make a hangel compared to what that was. It just hung off our
quarter, keeping up with us, and every now and then it would open its
mouth and let us see about four yards down its throat.
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