Born Again | Page 3

have me put in irons for breaking one of my shipmate's ribs, and she
interceded in my behalf, he became furious and threatened to have me
thrown overboard. This threat, however, only had the effect of making
me more stubborn and defiant. As a cowboy I had fought Indians and

real bad men in the western states of America, hunted elephants in
Africa, tigers in India, and roughed it as a gold seeker in Australia until
I had become hardened against danger and absolutely fearless, so that a
menace against my life did not worry me in the least. In fact, I really
enjoyed the situation and dared the captain to do his worst.
We had been out of Sydney about four weeks, and although I did not
know the exact latitude and longitude, I imagined we must have been a
considerable distance to the south and east of Cape Colony. It seems to
me now that I heard somebody say we were a little further south of the
regular course taken by vessels sailing around the Cape. It was one of
those pleasant nights in December, which one must experience in
southern waters to appreciate, that I took my turn on watch in the
forward part of the boat. It was past midnight and one of the darkest
nights I have ever known. The sea was rather calm but a good breeze
astern caused the ship to make good headway. I was all alone and
paced back and forth from side to side peering out into space and
darkness ahead. Occasionally, I would remain for several minutes
leaning against one of the railings. Except for the splashing of the sea
against the side of the ship, all was quiet. As I stood in one of my
meditative moods, looking straight ahead, I was suddenly attracted by
something which caused me to turn quickly and look in the opposite
direction, and then I observed the forms of four men coming quickly
toward me, but before I realized their object or had time to speak, they
grabbed me by the arms and legs. I struggled furiously for several
moments and freeing my hands, dealt one of them a vicious punch
which felled him to the deck, and it seemed for awhile that I would
shake them all off, when suddenly I received a terrible blow on the side
of my head which partially stunned me, and during the instant of
inactivity on my part I was raised bodily high in the air and plunged
overboard into the waters below.
CHAPTER III
It was in a semi-conscious state that I struck the water head foremost,
and it was by instinct, I suppose, that I immediately started to swim
away from the side of the vessel.

Although I was a powerful swimmer it seemed as if I should never
reach the surface again. The sudden and unexpected plunge had caused
me to go into the sea with my mouth open and thereby swallow a large
quantity of salt water. When almost on the verge of strangulation,
however, by a supreme effort I finally managed to reach the air again,
more dead than alive. It was then some time before I regained my
breath and fully understood what had happened. I assure the reader that
it was not a very pleasant sensation to find myself out in the middle of
the ocean without even the support of a life preserver and the ship
sailing away in the distance. During my adventurous career I had faced
death a score of times without the slightest emotion or semblance of
fright, but as I floated about on that broad expanse of water alone I then
realized for the first time in my life what a tiny, helpless microbe I
really was.
Oh, you little mortal known as man; you microscopical mixture of
protoplasm and egotism; you atomical speck of ignorance and avarice;
you who believe that the earth, moon, stars and all creation was
manufactured for your special benefit; if you could only be shown your
actual size in the universe as I was on that occasion, I think it would
result in the eradication of some of your innate vanity and selfishness,
thereby proving an incalculable blessing to you.
And now at last I was placed in a position whereby I could feel and
reflect upon my own littleness. I had absolutely no hope of being saved
from a watery grave, feeling that it was only a matter of an hour or two
before I should succumb to the inevitable and sink to the bottom of the
sea. Still I was unwilling to give up the few bones entrusted to my care
until finally overcome by exhaustion and so I kept afloat by lying on
my back and