e simply
knew that it was so, and with an ugly grunt he turned his back upon her
and walked away.

A slight breeze had risen from the southwest since Theriere had left
Barbara Harding and now all hands were busily engaged in completing the
jury rigging that the Halfmoon might take advantage of the wind and make
the shore that rose abruptly from the bosom of the ocean but a league
away.

Before the work was completed the wind increased rapidly, so that when
the tiny bit of canvas was hoisted into position it bellied bravely, and
the Halfmoon moved heavily forward toward the land.

"We gotta make a mighty quick run of it," said Skipper Simms to Ward,
"or we'll go to pieces on them rocks afore ever we find a landing."

"That we will if this wind rises much more," replied Ward; "and's far as
I can see there ain't no more chance to make a landing there than there
would be on the side of a house."

And indeed as the Halfmoon neared the towering cliffs it seemed utterly
hopeless that aught else than a fly could find a foothold upon that
sheer and rocky face that rose abruptly from the ocean's surface.

Some two hundred yards from the shore it became evident that there was
no landing to be made directly before them, and so the course of the
ship was altered to carry them along parallel to the shore in an effort
to locate a cove, or beach where a landing might safely be effected.

The wind, increasing steadily, was now whipping the sea into angry
breakers that dashed resoundingly against the rocky barrier of the
island. To drift within reach of those frightful destroyers would mean
the instant annihilation of the Halfmoon and all her company, yet this
was precisely what the almost unmanageable hulk was doing at the wheel
under the profane direction of Skipper Simms, while Ward and Theriere
with a handful of men altered the meager sail from time to time in an
effort to keep the ship off the rocks for a few moments longer.

The Halfmoon was almost upon the cliff's base when a narrow opening
showed some hundred fathoms before her nose, an opening through which
the sea ran in long, surging sweeps, rolling back upon itself in angry
breakers that filled the aperture with swirling water and high-flung
spume. To have attempted to drive the ship into such a place would have
been the height of madness under ordinary circumstances. No man knew
what lay beyond, nor whether the opening carried sufficient water to
float the Halfmoon,