I can discover nothing."
"I would to God, I may have been mistaken, though I do not think I could
be so much deceived."
Paul Blunt caught his arm, and held it like one who listened intently.
"Heard you that?" he whispered hurriedly.
"It sounded like the clanking of iron."
Looking around, the other found a handspike, and passing swiftly up the
heel of the bowsprit, he stood between the knight-heads. Here he bent
forward, and looked intently towards the lines of chains which lay over
the bulwarks, as bow-fasts. Of these chains the parts led quite near each
other, in parallel lines, and as the ship's moorings were taut, they were
hanging in merely a slight curve. From the rocks, or the place where the
kedges were laid to a point within thirty feet of the ship, these chains
were dotted with living beings crawling cautiously upward. It was even
easy, at a second look, to perceive that they were men stealthily
advancing on their hands and feet.
Raising the handspike, Mr. Blunt struck the chains several violent blows.
The effect was to cause the whole of the Arabs--for it could be no
others--suddenly to cease advancing, and to seat themselves astride
the chains.
"This is fearful," said Mr. Sharp; "but we must die, rather than permit
them to reach the ship.
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