er made no reply to this remark. He was too busily engaged
just then in looking out across the rolling sea astern, and watching a
haze which appeared to be creeping up over the water to the northward,
with a dark line of cloud hovering over it, both coming rapidly towards
the ship.

"Hurrah!" he exclaimed at last in an ecstasy of joy, when his faint hope
became confirmed into a certainty; "the wind's shifting, and chopping
round to the north in our favour!"

"You don't say so?" said Captain Dinks equally excited, abandoning the
provisioning of the boats and skipping up the poop-ladder like a young
two-year-old; "why, yes, really! It's the best piece of news I ever
heard! Put the helm amidships!" he added to the man at the wheel.
"We'll have to ease her round and run before it a bit for the last time;
and if the wind only holds to the northward for a short spell, we'll get
round the point yet and lay her old bones ashore decently. Steady,
Boltrope, steady!"

"Steady it is!" laconically answered the carpenter, whose trick it was
at the wheel, obeying the captain's directions implicitly.

"Look alive, McCarthy, and square the yards," was the captain's next
command; "but do it gingerly, my man, do it gingerly! If we lose the
jury-masts now it will be all up with us."

"Aye, aye, sorr," was the response of the chief mate, as he aided
himself in carrying out the order; and the vessel's head coming round
south by west, under the impulse of the helm and the shifting of the
sails, she began to exhibit some of her old powers and claw off the
land, bringing the cape now to bear upon her port bow well to leeward.

In addition to this, it was perceived that she made much better way
through the water than when she had been steering direct for the shore,
as, from the breeze being now well abeam, it made her heel over on her
side, thus elevating her broken bows somewhat and preventing her from
dipping her head so frequently in the waves.

It was a moment of intense interest and suspense, everybody being on
deck to witness the struggle the ship was making against the odds
opposed to her.

If she got round the point, they would be comparatively safe--at least
they thought so; whereas, if the wind failed, or a brace started, or the
rudder proved powerless to guide her at a critical period, the vessel
would be driven against the iron-bound cliff they were approaching in an
oblique line--against whose base the heavy rollers we