sure. And what
you told us last night about them there shoals that's supposed to be
somewheres ahead of us have been stickin' in my mind all night and
makin' me-- Ah! did ye hear that, sir?" he broke off suddenly.

Again the peculiar "shaling" sound, as of water breaking over some
deeply submerged obstruction, came floating down to me from to windward!

"Yes, Polson, I certainly thought I did," answered I in a state of
considerable alarm; "and, to tell you the honest truth, I don't half
like it any more than I do the movement and colour of the water. Let
them get the hand lead and take a cast of it."

"Ay, ay, Mr Troubridge, I will. That's the proper thing to do,"
responded the boatswain, as he bustled away down on to the main deck and
wended his way forward to bring up the lead-line.

The ship was already hove-to; there should therefore be no difficulty in
obtaining absolutely accurate soundings. In another couple of minutes a
man was stationed in the weather fore chains with the line coiled in his
hand and the lead weight, its foot duly "armed" with tallow, sweeping in
long swings close over the surface of the water, preparatory to being
cast. Presently the weight shot forward and plunged into the sea a
fathom or two ahead of the ship, the coils of thin line leapt from the
leadsman's hand, and, as the ship surged slowly ahead, the line
slackened, showing that the lead had reached bottom, and the leadsman,
bringing the sounding line up and down, proclaimed the depth--eighteen
fathoms!

"Eighteen fathoms!" ejaculated I in horrified accents to Polson, who had
rejoined me. "That means, Polson, that we are already on top of one of
those dangers that I was speaking about last night. Jump for'ard, man,
at once; clear away the starboard anchor ready for letting go, and bend
the cable to it. And hurry about it, my good fellow, as you value your
life. We may need to anchor at any moment in order to save the ship!"

The daylight was by this time coming fast, and it was possible to see
with tolerable distinctness all round the ship, to as great a distance
as the haziness of the atmosphere would permit. Still at intervals
there seemed to float down upon the pinions of the warm, steamy wind
that curious suggestion--for it was scarcely more--of the sound of
breaking water. But if it were indeed an actual sound, and not an
illusion of the senses, what did it mean? Had we already become embayed
or entangled among an