Though more than fifty years old--he lacked two years of sixty--he sprang into the boat quickly enough, with merely a little assistance from a freedman.

A sailor--he was a negro--shoved the skiff off from the side of the huge ship as violently as if the pole he used for the purpose was a spear, and the galley his foe.

The boat, urged by his companions' oars, had already moved forward, and he stumbled, the brown cap falling from his woolly head in the act.
"It seems as if I could still see him.

Ere I clearly realized that this was an evil omen, the boat stopped.
"The water was shallow.

I saw Achillas point to the shore.