wever; though it was done reluctantly, and not without
many misgivings, in spite of the favourable signs in the atmosphere.

When Mark had taken his seat in the dingui, Bob let go his hold of the
ship, and set the sail. The breeze was light, and fair to go, though it
was by no means so certain how it would serve them on the return.
Previously to quitting the ship, Mark had taken a good look at the
breakers to leeward, in order to have some general notion of the course
best to steer, and he commenced his little voyage, but entirely without
a plan for his own government. The breakers were quite as numerous to
leeward as to windward, but the fact of there being so many of them made
smooth water between them. A boat, or a ship, that was once fairly a
league or so within the broken lines of rocks, was like a vessel
embayed, the rollers of the open ocean expending their force on the
outer reefs, and coming in much reduced in size and power. Still the
uneasy ocean, even in its state of rest, is formidable at the points
where its waters meet with rocks, or sands and the breakers that did
exist, even as much embayed as was the dingui, were serious matters for
so small a boat to encounter. It was necessary, consequently, to steer
clear of them, lest they should capsize, or fill, this, the only craft
of the sort that now belonged to the vessel, the loss of which would be
a most serious matter indeed.

The dingui slided away from the ship with a very easy movement. There
was just about as much wind as so small a craft needed, and Bob soon
began to sound, Mark preferring to steer. It was, however, by no means
easy to sound in so low a boat, while in such swift motion; and Bob was
compelled to give it up. As they should be obliged to return with the
oars, Mark observed that then he would feel his way back to the ship.
Nevertheless, the few casts of the lead that did succeed, satisfied our
mariners that there was much more than water enough for the Rancocus,
between the reefs. _On_ them, doubtless it would turn out to be
different.

Mark met with more difficulty than he had anticipated in keeping the
dingui out of the breakers. So very smooth was the sort of bay he was
in--a bay by means of the reefs to windward, though no rock in that
direction rose above the surface of the sea--so very smooth, then, was
the sort of bay he was in, that the water did not break, in many places,
except at long intervals; and then only when a roller he