Others would have joined him if at that moment Reepicheep had not called out, “Don’t fight！ Push！” It was so unusual for the Mou to advi a to fight that, even in that terrible moment, every eye turo him. And when he jumped up on to the bulwark, forward of the snake, and t his little furry back against its huge scaly, slimy back, and began pushing as hard as he could, quite a number of people saw what he meant and rushed to both sides of the ship to do the same. And when, a moment later, the Sea Serpent’s head appeared again, this time on the port side, and this time with its back to them, then everyone uood.
The brute had made a loop of itlf round the Dawn Treader and was beginning to draw the loop tight. When it got quite tight—snap！—there would be floating matchwood where the ship had been and it could pick them out of the water one by oheir only ce was to push the loop backward till it slid over the stern; or el （to put the same thing another way） to push the ship forward out of the loop.
Reepicheep alone had, of cour, no more ce of doing this than of lifting up a cathedral, but he had nearly killed himlf with trying before others shoved him aside. Very soon the whole ship’s pany except Lud the Mou （which was fainting） was in two long lines along the two bulwarks, each man’s chest to the back of the man in front, so that the weight of the whole line was in the last man, pushing for their lives. For a few siing ds （which emed like hours） nothing appeared to happen. Joints cracked, sweat dropped, breath came in grunts and gasps. Then they felt that the ship was moving. They saw that the snake-loop was further from the mast than it had been. But they also saw that it was smaller. And now the real danger was at hand. Could they get it over the poop, or was it already too tight? Yes. It would just fit. It was resting on the poop rails. A dozen or more sprang up on the poop. This was far better. The Sea Serpent’s body was so low now that they could make a line across the poop and push side by side. Hope ro high till everyone remembered the high carved stern, the dragon tail, of the Dawn Treader. It would be quite impossible to get the brute over that.