swept her from stem to stern as it flung her forward like a
cork, now struggling and staggering in a hollow of seething, yeasty
foam. At length, as the schooner settled down into one of these
swirling hollows, she actually did strike, but the blow was a light one,
only just sufficient to swear by and not enough to check her headlong
rush for the smallest fraction of a second; and shortly afterwards I
became aware that the breakers were perceptibly less weighty, so much so
that in about another minute they ceased to break inboard.

It now dawned upon me that we must be passing over a submerged reef of
considerable extent, and my hopes began to revive; for since we had
traversed it thus far in safety, there was just the ghost of a chance
that we might manage to blunder across the remainder of it without
serious damage. As my thoughts took this direction my eyes fell upon a
figure clinging to the main rigging, and I made it out to be Saunders,
my chief mate. I shouted to him, and by good luck my voice reached him,
and he came staggering aft to me. Without relaxing my grip on the
wheel, I hurriedly explained to him my impression with regard to our
situation, and directed him to go forward and see both anchors clear for
letting go; for I had determined that, should my supposition prove
correct, and should we be so extremely fortunate as to traverse the
remaining portion of the reef in safety, I would anchor immediately that
we should emerge into clear water. Fortunately for us all in our
present strait, our cables were always kept bent, so that there was not
very much to be done; and in a few minutes Saunders returned aft with
the intelligence that all was ready for anchoring at any moment.

And now I really began to hope in earnest that we might perchance
escape, for the sea was not breaking nearly so heavily around us; indeed
I could distinguish, at no great distance ahead, small patches of
unbroken water, with wider patches beyond; and, best of all, we had only
touched the reef once, and that but lightly. Presently the schooner
shot into a patch of unbroken water that appeared to communicate at one
point with a larger patch, and I at once steered for the point of
junction, at the same time singing out to the mate to get in the
mainsail, and for the hands to stand by the fore and staysail halliards.
A line of breakers still extended for some distance ahead of us, but
they were now detached, with clear water between