eret. Never did living pig gambol more lightly. But you have sent
for me, Sir Nigel?"

"I would fain have your rede, Sir Oliver, for Master Hawtayne hath fears
that when we veer there may come danger from the hole in our side."

"Then do not veer," quoth Sir Oliver hastily. "And now, fair sir, I must
hasten back to see how my rogues have fared with the brawn."

"Nay, but this will scarce suffice," cried the shipman. "If we do not
veer we will be upon the rocks within the hour."

"Then veer," said Sir Oliver. "There is my rede; and now, Sir Nigel, I
must crave----"

At this instant, however, a startled shout rang out from two seamen upon
the forecastle. "Rocks!" they yelled, stabbing into the air with their
forefingers. "Rocks beneath our very bows!" Through the belly of a great
black wave, not one hundred paces to the front of them, there thrust
forth a huge jagged mass of brown stone, which spouted spray as though
it were some crouching monster, while a dull menacing boom and roar
filled the air.

"Yare! yare!" screamed Goodwin Hawtayne, flinging himself upon the long
pole which served as a tiller. "Cut the halliard! Haul her over! Lay her
two courses to the wind!"

Over swung the great boom, and the cog trembled and quivered within five
spear-lengths of the breakers.

"She can scarce draw clear," cried Hawtayne, with his eyes from the sail
to the seething line of foam. "May the holy Julian stand by us and the
thrice-sainted Christopher!"

"If there be such peril, Sir Oliver," quoth Sir Nigel, "it would be
very knightly and fitting that we should show our pennons. I pray you.
Edricson, that you will command my guidon-bearer to put forward my
banner."

"And sound the trumpets!" cried Sir Oliver. "In manus tuas, Domine! I
am in the keeping of James of Compostella, to whose shrine I shall make
pilgrimage, and in whose honor I vow that I will eat a carp each year
upon his feast-day. Mon Dieu, but the waves roar! How is it with us now,
master-shipman?"

"We draw! We draw!" cried Hawtayne, with his eyes still fixed upon the
foam which hissed under the very bulge of the side. "Ah, Holy Mother, be
with us now!"

As he spoke the cog rasped along the edge of the reef, and a long white
curling sheet of wood was planed off from her side from waist to poop by
a jutting horn of the rock. At the same instant she lay suddenly over,
the sail drew full, and she plunged seawards amid the shoutings of the
seamen and the ar