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TREASURE ISLAND
myself. I was on the summit of one swell when the schooner came stooping over the next. The bowsprit was over my head. I sprung to my feet and leaped, stamping the coracle under water. With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my foot was lodged between the stay and the brace, and as I still clung there panting, a dull blow told me that the schooner had charged down upon and struck the coracle and that I was left without retreat on the Hispaniola.