ous billows. Hence, the natural alarm that had
been excited by the ship's striking had calmed down, there being nothing
in her present situation to heighten the sense of danger; for the vessel
was sheltered from the wind under the lee of the cape, and the sea, in
comparison with the rough water she had recently passed through and the
stormy waves she had battled with when beating round the point, was
almost calm. Everybody, therefore, inspired by the example set them by
Mr Meldrum and the captain, remained perfectly cool and collected, the
crew obeying the orders given them with alacrity and working as heartily
as if the poor old _Nancy Bell_ were still the staunch clipper of yore,
careering over the ocean in the full panoply of her canvas plumage and
prosecuting her voyage, instead of lying, a broke and battered hulk,
hard and fast ashore on an outlying reef of rocks at Kerguelen Land, the
"Desolation Island"--name of ominous import--of Antarctic whaling ships!

Even Bill Moody, mutinous as he had shown himself before and lazy to a
degree, now appeared metaphorically to "put his shoulder to the wheel,"
as if to make amends for the past, lending a willing hand to the
preparations that were being made by Mr McCarthy for equipping the
boats and laying down ways for launching them from the main-deck--there
being no davits now, nor any means for rigging a derrick to lift them
over the side. Indeed, when Mr Adams ordered a gang to man the pumps
again on the carpenter's reporting that the water was gaining in the
hold, the whilom mutineer was one of the first to step forwards for the
duty, although Captain Dinks at once countermanded the order, seeing its
inutility, and saying that there was no use in working a willing horse
to death!

"They could never clear her now, Adams," said he, "pump as hard as they
could; and if they did it would be useless, for she'll never float
again. However, if you want to give the men something to do, you can
set to work breaking cargo and lightening her amidships, for then we'll
swing further up on the reef and get fixed more firmly."

"Very good, sir," replied the second mate; and the hands were therefore
at once started to open the hatches, getting out some of the heavy goods
from the hold below, especially the dead-weight from just abaft the
main-mast, that had so deducted from the ship's buoyancy when sailing on
a wind during the earlier part of her voyage.

Moody's change of demeano