The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1902-01-23

grinding one another upon the sweIls,
~ though they had been sentient
animals. The men on board of them
shot their arrows, slashed with axes,
thrust and hacked with swords, and
hurled the throwing fire. But In
every way the fight converged upon
the Bear. IL was on her that the
enemy spent the hercest Of their
spite; 10 was to the Bear that the
, other crews Of Tatho's navy rallied
Ms their own vessels caught fire, or
were sunk or taken.
On our side the battle.cry was
"Tob!" and the name of this obscure
ship-captain seemed to carry a conf.
dence with IL for our own crews that
many well.known commander
might have envied. The enemy had
dozen rallying cries, and these con.
fused them. but rs their other ship
commanders one by one were killed.
and Dnson remained. active with mis-
chief, "Dasoni" became the shout
which was thrown back at us In re-
sponse to our "Tob!"
However, I will not load my page
with further long account OF this OBJ
scure sea-fght, whose only glory
was Its ferocity. One by one all the
ships of either side were sunk. or lay
with oil their people killed, till final
ly only Dnson's galley and our own
Bear were left. For the moment we
were being mastered. We had n score
OF men remaining out of all those
that manned the navy when IL sailed
from Yucatan, and the enemy had
boarded us and made the decks of the
Bear the field OF battle. But they
had been over busy with the throw
ing fire. and presently, as we ragged at
one another. the smoke and the flame
from the sturdy vessel herself let us
very plainly know that she was past
salvation.
But Tob was nothing daunted.
'They may stay here and fry II they
choose" he shouted, with his great
boisterous laugh, "but for ourselves
the galley Is good enough now. Keep
n guard on Deucalior, and come with
me. shipmates!"
"Tob!" our fellows shouted in their
ecstasy Of fighting madness. and ]
too could not forbear sending out n
"Tob!" for my battle-cry. 1t was n
change for me not to be leader, but
1t was a luxury for once to fight IN
the wake of this Tob, despite his un-
couthness Of micn and plan. There
was no stopping this new rush,
though progress still was slow. Tob
with his bloody ax cut the road in
front, and we others, with the lust
of battle filling us to the chin, ragged
like furies in his wake. Gods! but IL
was fight.
Ten of us won to the galley, with
the flames and the smoke from the
poor Bear squirting at our heels. We
turned and stabbed madly Mt all who
tried to follow, and hacked through
the grapples that held the vessels to
their embrace. The sca-swclls
spurned the Bear away.
The slaves chained to the rowing.
galley's benches had interest neither
one way nor the other. and looked on
the contest with dull concern. save
when some stray missile found a bill.
let among them. But n handful OF
the fighting men had scrambled des-
perately on board of the galley after
us, preferring any fate to fiery
death on the Bear, and these had "a
be dealt with promptly. Three, with
their fighting fury still red-hot in
them. had most wastefully to be
killed out Of mischief's way; Ave, who
had pitched their weapons into the
sea. were chained to oar looms. In
place of slaves who were dead; and