"The seaman Martinez, kneeling in water, was asking, rather
helplessly, for someone to pass him a baler or invent one--our
regulation dipper having gone overboard in the gale. It was a silly,
useless question: but Grimalson, already rattled, swung round upon a
man he knew to be weak. 'Damn me!' cried he in a gust of rage, 'if I
can't teach it to doctors, I'll teach _seamen_ who gives orders
here!' and snatching out a marling-spike from a sheath in his belt,
hurled it full at the seaman's head.
"The act was brutal enough in itself; for the iron, though a light
one, was full heavy enough, flung with that force, to lay a man out.
It did worse: for Martinez, instead of ducking his head, made a
spring to his feet, putting out his hands much as if fielding a
cricket-ball. The marling-spike, miss-aimed, struck the thwart in
front of him, turned point up with the ricochet, and plunged into his
thigh. As I splashed forward to his help, blood came creeping,
staining the water around my ankles. The steel point had pierced
slantwise through his femoral artery.
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