usually are on the
judgment and orders of their superiors, even in the direst
emergencies, the least experienced man in her saw that their chances
of final escape from drowning were of the most doubtful nature. The
men looked at each other in a way to express their feelings; and the
moment seemed favorable to Spike to confer with his confidential
sea-dogs in private; but more white water was also ahead, and it was
necessary to pass through it, since no opening was visible by which to
avoid it. He deferred his purpose, consequently, until this danger was
escaped.

On this occasion Spike saw but little opportunity to select a place to
get through the breakers, though the spot, as a whole, was not of the
most dangerous kind. The reader will understand that the preservation
of the boat at all, in white water, was owing to the circumstance that
the rocks all around it lay so near the surface of the sea as to
prevent the possibility of agitating the element very seriously, and
to the fact that she was near the lee side of the reef. Had the
breakers been of the magnitude of those which are seen where the deep
rolling billows of the ocean first meet the weather side of shoals or
rocks, a craft of that size, and so loaded, could not possibly have
passed the first line of white water without filling. As it was,
however, the breakers she had to contend with were sufficiently
formidable, and they brought with them the certainty that the boat was
in imminent danger of striking the bottom at any moment. Places like
those in which Mulford had waded on the reef, while it was calm, would
now have proved fatal to the strongest frame, since human powers were
insufficient long to withstand the force of such waves as did glance
over even these shallows.

"Look out!" cried Spike, as the boat again plunged in among the white
water. "Keep bailing, men--keep bailing."

The men did bail, and the danger was over almost as soon as
encountered. Something like a cheer burst out of the chest of Spike,
when he saw deeper water around him, and fancied he could now trace a
channel that would carry him quite beyond the extent of the reef. It
was arrested, only half uttered, however, by a communication from the
boatswain, who sat on a midship thwart, his arms folded, and his eye
on the brig and the boats.

"There goes the Molly's masts, sir! Both have gone together; and as
good sticks was they, before them bomb-shells passed through our
rigging, as