When the board was loosened I pressed my heel against it with all the force I could muster, and through an opening six inches broad and four feet long came a flood of water that swamped the boat before one could utter twenty words.

I heard a cry from one of the men: "The dog has scuttled the boat.

Shoot him!" At the same instant the blaze and noise of two fusils broke the still blackness of the night, but I was overboard and the powder and lead were wasted.

The next moment the boat sank in ten fathoms of water, and with it went the men in armor.

I hope the fisherman saved himself.