I could not play the coward before her eyes.

"Here goes," I said, backing water with one oar and running the bow ashore.
I stepped out and advanced valiantly upon a long-maned bull in the midst of his wives.

I was armed with the regular club with which the boat-pullers killed the wounded seals gaffed aboard by the hunters.

It was only a foot and a half long, and in my superb ignorance I never dreamed that the club used ashore when raiding the rookeries measured four to five feet.

The cows lumbered out of my way, and the distance between me and the bull decreased.