At last , with a swallow or two , he spoke , his face still wearing the same expression of extreme perplexity . In order to speak he had to take the dagger from his mouth , but in all else he remained unmoved . `` Jim , '' says he , `` I reckon we 're fouled , you and me , and we 'll have to sign articles . I 'd have had you but for that there lurch , but I do n't have no luck , not I ; and I reckon I 'll have to strike , which comes hard , you see , for a master mariner to a ship 's younker like you , Jim . '' I was drinking in his words and smiling away , as conceited as a cock upon a wall , when , all in a breath , back went his right hand over his shoulder . Something sang like an arrow through the air ; I felt a blow and then a sharp pang , and there I was pinned by the shoulder to the mast . In the horrid pain and surprise of the moment -- I scarce can say it was by my own volition , and I am sure it was without a conscious aim -- both my pistols went off , and both escaped out of my hands . They did not fall alone ; with a choked cry , the coxswain loosed his grasp upon the shrouds and plunged head first into the water . 27 `` Pieces of Eight '' OWING to the cant of the vessel , the masts hung far out over the water , and from my perch on the cross-trees I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay . Hands , who was not so far up , was in consequence nearer to the ship and fell between me and the bulwarks . He rose once to the surface in a lather of foam and blood and then sank again for good . As the water settled , I could see him lying huddled together on the clean , bright sand in the shadow of the vessel 's sides . A fish or two whipped past his body . Sometimes , by the quivering of the water , he appeared to move a little , as if he were trying to rise . But he was dead enough , for all that , being both shot and drowned , and was food for fish in the very place where he had designed my slaughter . I was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick , faint , and terrified . The hot blood was running over my back and chest . The dirk , where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast , seemed to burn like a hot iron ; yet it was not so much these real sufferings that distressed me , for these , it seemed to me , I could bear without a murmur ; it was the horror I had upon my mind of falling from the cross-trees into that still green water , beside the body of the coxswain . I clung with both hands till my nails ached , and I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril . Gradually my mind came back again , my pulses quieted down to a more natural time , and I was once more in possession of myself .
It was my XXXXX thought to pluck forth the dirk , but either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me , and I desisted with a violent shudder .
Jim bulwarks choked coxswain cross-trees dagger drowned first right shrouds