on rugged with the heads of waves; and then of a
sudden--come and gone ere I could fix it, with a swallow's
swiftness--one glimpse of what we had come so far and paid so dear to
see; the masts and rigging of a brig pencilled on heaven, with an
ensign streaming at the main, and the ragged ribbons of a top-sail
thrashing from the yard. Again and again, with toilful searching, I
recalled that apparition. There was no sign of any land; the wreck stood
between sea and sky, a thing the most isolated I had ever viewed; but as
we drew nearer, I perceived her to be defended by a line of breakers
which drew off on either hand, and marked, indeed, the nearest segment
of the reef. Heavy spray hung over them like a smoke, some hundred feet
into the air; and the sound of their consecutive explosions rolled like
a cannonade.

In half an hour we were close in; for perhaps as long again we skirted
that formidable barrier toward its farther side; and presently the sea
began insensibly to moderate and the ship to go more sweetly. We had
gained the lee of the island, as (for form's sake) I may call that ring
of foam and haze and thunder; and shaking out a reef, wore ship and
headed for the passage.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] In sea-lingo (Pacific) _Dutchman_ includes all Teutons and folk
from the basin of the Baltic; _Scattermouch_, all Latins and
Levantines.

CHAPTER XIII

THE ISLAND AND THE WRECK

All hands were filled with joy. It was betrayed in their alacrity and
easy faces: Johnson smiling broadly at the wheel, Nares studying the
sketch chart of the island with an eye at peace, and the hands clustered
forward, eagerly talking and pointing: so manifest was our escape, so
wonderful the attraction of a single foot of earth after so many suns
had set and risen on an empty sea! To add to the relief, besides, by one
of those malicious coincidences which suggest for Fate the image of an
underbred and grinning schoolboy, we had no sooner worn ship than the
wind began to abate.

For myself, however, I did but exchange anxieties. I was no sooner out
of one fear than I fell upon another; no sooner secure that I should
myself make the intended haven, than I began to be convinced that Trent
was there before me. I climbed into the rigging, stood on the board, and
eagerly scanned that ring of coral reef and bursting breaker, and the
blue lagoon which they enclosed. The two islets within began to show
plainly--Middle Brooks and Lo