Paddling under Palmettos — page 140: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Paddling Under Palmettos. 133 of the exposure, his fear, and the awful doom await- ing us. I knew what was the matter when I Saw him creeping stealthily toward me knife in hand. His eyes blazed with the fire of his brain, and there was murder in his glance. “Seli-preservation is the first law of nature, and, although death seemed so near and so positive, I made up my mind that I would not submit tamely. “He crept up like a tiger. I had tied myself to the spar with a piece of rope which I had cut from the rigging. ‘““As he drew nearer I warned him to keep back, but he simply scowled. One would think it was his worst foe upon whom he was thus advancing instead of a friend. “At last he sprang at me. The shock was ter- rible. I managed to clutch the mad sailor’s arm so that the descending knife did me very little injury. “As was natural, however, we both lost our foot- ing and fell over. I felt a thrill of horror shoot through my frame, and expected to feel the teeth of a shark in my flesh, but the rope with which I had tied myself saved me. There I hung, my feet almost touching the water. GEomicboo cS (E(0)