w
distended in a manner that threatened to drag after it the only mast which
still stood. Wilder instantly saw the necessity of getting rid of this
sail, and he also saw the utter impossibility of securing it. Calling
Earing to his side, he pointed out the danger, and gave the necessary
order.

"Yon spar cannot stand such shocks much longer," he concluded; "and,
should it go over the bows, some fatal blow might be given to the ship at
the rate she is moving. A man or two must be sent aloft to cut the sail
from the yards."

"The stick is bending like a willow whip," returned the mate, "and the
lower mast itself is sprung. There would be great danger in trusting a
life in that top, while such wild squalls as these are breathing around
us."

"You may be right," returned Wilder, with a sudden conviction of the truth
of what the other had said: "Stay you then here; and, if any thing befal
me, try to get the vessel into port as far north as the Capes of Virginia,
at least;--on no account attempt Hatteras, in the present condition
of"----

"What would you do, Captain Wilder?" interrupted the mate laying his hand
powerfully on the shoulder of his Commander, who, he observed, had already
thrown his sea-cap on the deck, and was preparing to divest himself of
some of his outer garments.

"I go aloft, to ease the mast of that topsail, without which we lose the
spar, and possibly the ship."

"Ay, ay, I see that plain enough; but, shall it be said, Another did the
duty of Edward Earing? It is your business to carry the vessel into the
Capes of Virginia, and mine to cut the topsail adrift. If harm comes to
me, why, put it in the log, with a word or two about the manner in which I
played my part: That is always the best and most proper epitaph for a
sailor."

Wilder made no resistance, but resumed his watchful and reflecting
attitude, with the simplicity of one who had been too long trained to the
discharge of certain obligations himself, to manifest surprise that
another should acknowledge their imperative character. In the mean time,
Earing proceeded steadily to perform what he had just promised. Passing
into the waist of the ship, he provided himself with a suitable hatchet,
and then, without speaking a syllable to any of the mute but attentive
seamen, he sprang into the fore-rigging, every strand and rope-yarn of
which was tightened by the strain nearly to snapping. The understanding
eyes of his observers comprehended his