Let it be assumed that three among the twenty could escape that night, and it was horribly true that the field of selection might be narrowed by a wild-beast struggle long before the sun went down.
"The young lady has at least given us a project," he said.

"It is a desperate one, Heaven knows! It offers a fantastic chance, and I can see no other, but--what can we do without arms ?" "Use our heads," put in Hozier.

He had not the slightest intention of making a light-hearted joke at that crisis in their affairs, but he happened to look at Coke, and an involuntary smile gleamed through the crust of clotted blood and perspiration that gave his good-looking face a most sinister aspect.

The Irishman cackled with laughter.
"Begob, that's wan for the skipper," he crowed; then some of the others grinned, and the _Andromeda's_ little company stood four-square again to the winds of adversity.

Having blundered into prominence, the second mate was quick to see that he must hammer home the facts, though in more serious vein.
"Bring us to the island, Senhor De Sylva," he said, "and we will make a fight of it.