D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 111: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

100 The Third Lash. their convulsions also, consciousness was immediately lost and the figure swung violently, but limp. Tihe spasm might be merely the vibration of the twist- ing strands. Angered at this apparent contempt to its demands, the stranger fired a gun which was shotted; yet not to strike, one may suppose; but it ricochetted on a heaving wave just as the Xiphias gave a plunge and recovered slowly, and the bullet, cutting a piece of iron firming the shrouds, sent it flying. It cut the rope like a bar-shot and the body fell into the waves. The sailor who had clung to the feet, fell on the rail by a clever jerk of the body and drew himself inboard. As if that shot had burst the reservoirs overhead the volume of rain descending was incalculable, allaying the turbulence; but close on its detonation was heard a more powerful roar—the winds were hurling all before them as they made the final charge in this battle, and the two other onsets were skirmishes. The Frenchman had seemed about to run down the three-master, but this blow separated them like two puff- balls. The wa'ter-logged one was lifted so high that tor- rents gushed out of unsuspected gaps and fissures, and she spilt half her deck-wash. The terrible friction en- gendered electricity in superabundance. “The Candles of St. Elmo” topped the broken mast- stumps and wandered, like corpse-lights in a cemetery, over the ship, again submerged. Once more she rose, like a swimmer trying to cast off the water mantle; it was the last effort of inherent buoy- ancy. It seemed as if she would sink with her masts held up by the wind in the sails, torn loose and half unfurled; but the attempt only broke them a second time—near the deck, which was covered with the long splinters and the snapped rigging in inextricable confusion. As if that weight were too unbearable, the sheer hull rolled and sank slowly, severing some ropes and tearing all free from the spars. Over this network and rude raft clambered, in and out of the next to impenetrability, several stripped and desperate figures. Others had Eomicbooksrco