's the truth I'm afther tellin' ye!" and Mr
McCarthy then went off, shaking his fist good-humouredly at those who
laughed at his quaint speech.

Four other men he selected as a crew for the jolly-boat, which was
hauled down on the beach in readiness to shove off as soon as any of the
wreckage was reported in sight; the remainder of the hands being
directed to place themselves under the orders of the carpenter until
their services should be required to relieve the look-out men at the end
of their watch. The duty of these latter, however, was for some time a
sinecure, as the breakers were still breaking angrily against the cliffs
and keeping up the hoarse diapason in which they expressed their
impotent rage; while the wind, though blowing with less force than
during the night time, was yet strong enough to sweep off the tops of
the billows when it caught them well abeam, carrying the spindrift away
to leeward and scattering the surge with its blast as it transformed it
into fairy-like foam bubbles and wreaths of gossamer spray.

Noon came before there was any change.

Then, soon after the end of the ebb and just as the tide began to flow
again, the wind died away into a dead calm; and the sea settling down
somewhat--the rollers still rolling in, but only breaking when they
reached the shore, instead of jostling one another in their tumultuous
rushings together and mimic encounters out in the open--every eye was on
the _qui vive_. It was either "now or never" that they might expect
anything coming inshore from the wreck!

"Sail ho!" at length shouted one of the look-out men on the ridge. The
sailor evidently could not help using the nautical term from old habit,
although he well knew that there was little chance of his seeing a
"sail" that quarter!

"Where away?" called out Mr McCarthy, who had the jolly-boat's crew
round her, running her into the water the moment he heard the cry.

"Right to leeward of the reef, sir, about a mile out," answered the
look-out, adding quickly afterwards, "it looks a pretty biggish bit of
timber, sir, and rides high in the water."

"All right, my man," said the mate; "mind you kape still on the watch,
and fix any other paces of planking you may say in your mind's eye! You
can till me where to look for thim whin I come back agin within hail.
Shove off, you beggars!" he then cried out to the boat's crew, as he
jumped in over the side. "Arrah put your backs into it, for we're bound