I think I was a good , prompt subaltern , and I am very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot , for we went about and about and dodged in , shaving the banks , with a certainty and a neatness that were a pleasure to behold . Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land closed around us . The shores of North Inlet were as thickly wooded as those of the southern anchorage , but the space was longer and narrower and more like , what in truth it was , the estuary of a river . Right before us , at the southern end , we saw the wreck of a ship in the last stages of dilapidation . It had been a great vessel of three masts but had lain so long exposed to the injuries of the weather that it was hung about with great webs of dripping seaweed , and on the deck of it shore bushes had taken root and now flourished thick with flowers . It was a sad sight , but it showed us that the anchorage was calm . `` Now , '' said Hands , `` look there ; there 's a pet bit for to beach a ship in . Fine flat sand , never a cat 's paw , trees all around of it , and flowers a-blowing like a garding on that old ship . '' `` And once beached , '' I inquired , `` how shall we get her off again ? '' `` Why , so , '' he replied : `` you take a line ashore there on the other side at low water , take a turn about one of them big pines ; bring it back , take a turn around the capstan , and lie to for the tide . Come high water , all hands take a pull upon the line , and off she comes as sweet as natur ' . And now , boy , you stand by . We 're near the bit now , and she 's too much way on her . Starboard a little -- so -- steady -- starboard -- larboard a little -- steady -- steady ! '' So he issued his commands , which I breathlessly obeyed , till , all of a sudden , he cried , `` Now , my hearty , luff ! '' And I put the helm hard up , and the HISPANIOLA swung round rapidly and ran stem on for the low , wooded shore . The excitement of these last manoeuvres had somewhat interfered with the watch I had kept hitherto , sharply enough , upon the coxswain . Even then I was still so much interested , waiting for the ship to touch , that I had quite forgot the peril that hung over my head and stood craning over the starboard bulwarks and watching the ripples spreading wide before the bows . I might have fallen without a struggle for my life had not a sudden disquietude seized upon me and made me turn my head . Perhaps I had heard a creak or seen his shadow moving with the tail of my eye ; perhaps it was an instinct like a cat 's ; but , sure enough , when I looked round , there was Hands , already half-way towards me , with the dirk in his right hand .
We must both have XXXXX out aloud when our eyes met , but while mine was the shrill cry of terror , his was a roar of fury like a charging bully 's .
am cried dodged hung interfered lie ran saw touch waiting