every ounce of strength.  I felt as though the life was being squeezed out of me by the grasp of those hairy arms; yet the very vice in which I was held yielded me leverage.  The hatchet dropped to the deck, and both hands found lodgment under the jaw, the muscles of my arms strained to the utmost, as I forced back that horrid head.  Little by little it gave way, the suffering brute whining in agony, until, the pain becoming unendurable, the clinging arms, suddenly released their hold, letting me drop heavily to the deck.

By some good fortune I fell upon the discarded hatchet, and stumbled to my feet once more, gripping the weapon again in my fingers.  I stood trembling, breathing hard, my flesh burning, peering about.  The darkness revealed nothing, yet I knew I had been dragged within the stateroom, from which there was no escape, as I had lost all sense of direction.  For an instant I could not even locate the brute.  With an intense desire to escape, to place the door safely between me and my antagonist, I felt blindly about in the black void.  Silently as I endeavored to move, I must have been overheard by the beast, for suddenly his jaws snapped savagely, and I saw once again the baneful glow of those horrible eyes.  I knew enough of wild life to realize that now the ape feared me, and that my safer course was to attack.  Acting on this impulse, determined to have an end, before he could grip me once more in those awful arms, and crush me into unconsciousness, I sprang straight toward him, sending the sharp blade of the hatchet crashing against the skull.  The aim was good, the stroke a death blow, yet the monster got me with one jaw, and we fell to the deck together, he savagely clawing me in his death agony.  Then the hairy figure quivered, and lay motionless.  With barely strength enough for the task, I released the stiffening grip, and crept aside, rising to my knees, only to immediately pitch forward unconscious.  It seemed to me as I went down that I heard voices, saw lights flashing in the outer cabin, but all these merged instantly into blackness.

When I came back once more to life I knew immediately I was upon the schooner’s deck, breathing the fresh night air.  I could see the outline of the helmsman in the little circle of binnacle light, a ray of which extended far enough to assure me of the presence of Dorothy.  I watched her for some time, my mind slowly clearing to the situation, and, it was not until I spoke, that she became aware I had recovered consciousness.

“Dorothy.”

“Yes, yes,” she bent lower eagerly.  “Oh, I am so glad to hear you speak.  Watkins said you were not seriously hurt, but your clothes were torn into shreds, and you bled terribly.”

“It was not a nightmare then; I really fought that beast?”

“Yes; but it is too horrible to think about—­I—­I shall never blot out the sight.”

“You saw what occurred yourself?” I questioned in astonishment.  “You actually came below?  Then I did hear voices, and see a light, before my senses left me?”