whether hunger or fear compelled him to strike , strike he did , quicker than the lightning itself , leaping forty feet from the deck below , landing square in our midst , and in the hellish racket that ensued-the screams and shouts of my startled crew , the snarls and roars of the attacking beast , the explosions on all sides of rifles and small arms , and the howl of the wind , the crash of the waves , the roar of the thunder-from that bloody bedlam i was shoved down the stairs and dragged to the door of my cabin . ''