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A DANGEROUS MOMENT.
Then was a moment of anxiety impossible to describe: everyone was silent, and each watched fearfully the arch described by the projectile. Nothing could be done to escape it, and in a few seconds it fell with a frightful noise on the foredeck of the Dolphin.
The terrified sailors crowded to the stern; no one dared move a step. The fuse burned with a brisk crackle.
But one brave man alone among them ran up to the formidable weapon of destruction. It was Crockston; he took the shell in his strong arms, whilst showers of sparks were falling from it; then, with a super-human effort, he threw it overboard.
Hardly had the shell reached the surface of the water when it burst with a frightful report.—Page 150.
Vol. 7.