o the
ground by the wreck as it passed over their heads. The captain fell
like the rest, but he retained his grasp of Ailie, and succeeded in
rising, and as the gale carried him away with irresistible fury he bore
firmly down to his right, and gained the eddy caused by the rocks which
until now had sheltered the hut. He was safe; but he did not feel
secure until he had staggered towards the most sheltered part, and
placed his child in a cleft of the rock.

Here he found Gurney and Tarquin before him, and soon after Glynn came
staggering in, along with one or two others. In less than three minutes
after the hut had been blown away, all the men were collected in the
cleft, where they crouched down to avoid the pelting, pitiless spray
that dashed over their heads.

It is difficult to conceive a more desperate position than that in which
they were now placed, yet there and at that moment a thrill of joy
passed through the hearts of most, if not all of them, for they heard a
shout which was recognised to be the voice of Tim Rokens. It came from
the rocks a few yards to their right, and almost ere it had died away,
Rokens himself staggered into the sheltering cleft of rock, accompanied
by Phil Briant.

Some of the men who had faced the dangers to which they had been exposed
with firm nerves and unblanched cheeks, now grew pale, and trembled
violently, for they actually believed that the spirits of their lost
shipmates had come to haunt them. But these superstitious fears were
soon put to flight by the hearty voice of the harpooner, who shook
himself like a great Newfoundland dog as he came up, and exclaimed--

"Why, wot on airth has brought ye all here?"

"I think we may say, what has brought _you_ here?" replied the captain,
as he grasped them each by the hand and shook them with as much energy
as if he had not met them for ten years past.

"It's aisy to tell that," said Briant, as he crouched down in the midst
of the group; "Tim and me wos blow'd right across the bank, an' we
should no doubt ha' bin blow'd right into the sea, but Tim went full
split agin one o' the casks o' salt junk, and I went slap agin _him_,
and we lay for a moment all but dead. Then we crep' in the lee o' the
cask, an' lay there till a lull came, when we clapped on all sail, an'
made for the shelter o' the rocks, an' shure we got there niver a taste
too soon, for it came on to blow the next minit, fit to blow the eyelids
off yer face, it d